


One Breath Away

by TheHeathenSlave



Category: Billy Idol (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Fingering, Angst, Apocalypse, Daddy Kink, Death, Dom/sub, Drama, Drinking, Drugs, F/M, Fetish, Fluff and Angst, Kink, Las Vegas, M/F, Minor Character Death, Murder, Oral Sex, Rape, Rape/Non-con Elements, Recreational Drug Use, Self-Insert, Sex, Spanking, Vaginal Fingering, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-01-31 00:28:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12664599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHeathenSlave/pseuds/TheHeathenSlave
Summary: Billy Idol, a zombie apocalypse, a bitchy main female character heavily based on the author, violence, sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Really nothing much more to see here and I would in no way be surprised if this is ignored. Enjoy![Story is Complete, Tags are for the ENTIRE STORY, it will be posted chapter by chapter as I have the time. 20 chapters in all]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The main character, Lisa, is based on me. As much as that is "Self Insert" she's also far from perfect, isn't very nice, and well I'm pretty realistic about how I portray myself and the fact that I'm a bitch. That being said, if you choose to read this realize it's not annoyingly Mary-Sue it's as painfully as I could make it given the super unrealistic nature of the story.

The nearly five hours of travel seemed to take a lifetime. Maybe it was because I had been anticipating this trip for far too long. I had booked it months ago. My home life and job weren’t anything to brag about (or be proud of). Then again, my life had never been like that either. I was possibly doomed to be a nobody. I had found my niche in writing but it wasn’t making me much money. Not enough to live off of anyway. I had projects but they were always in development. Doing as much as I could and taking it as far as I could take it while I relied on other people to say yes or no. It was a much longer process than people assumed. Sending out scripts and manuscripts. Even if people were interested after a pitch it didn’t mean you had a chance. If you did have a chance you were waiting weeks and months for responses. The vast majority of the time they weren’t positive. I could sell self-published books just fine but not to a point where I could quit working. My following was devoted but too small. I had to branch out but I didn’t know how. This trip I had decided to take was to restore me. Find a new muse or become inspired.

It wasn’t my first trip to the city and it wouldn’t be my last. It was my first time staying on the strip, though. I had never been able to afford it before. I would be staying at Mandalay Bay. It was a standard room but it was still more than I could have hoped for. A total duration of four nights and five days. I was alone out here but not lonely, or afraid. There was no reason to be. I’ve always not only been a city girl but the street smarts I had acquired over my rough life had wised me up to everything I needed to know to survive in a place like this. It also wasn’t as if I didn’t come from a large city back east anyway. I found that so many people could see cities like this, L.A, Chicago, or New York as intimidating but I saw them differently. I saw them not only as a challenge but a renewed source of energy. I was a night owl and always had been and now I was walking through a city that never slept.

The first thing I had done upon arrival was take the courtesy shuttle to my hotel. The flight out had been a later one. It departed at night, nine o'clock eastern time. After the four hours or so my internal clock felt as if it were one in the morning but the local time hadn’t advanced very much. I unpacked a few things, not everything. I had never been very big on unpacking the whole bag. Even when I moved places for good, things always ended up staying in boxes until I absolutely needed them. It was easier for me to do that than to continually reorganize everything seeing as how I moved every few years or so to a new place. It was in my room that I saw the brochure.

Nothing very unique about it. Just an ordinary pamphlet that detailed all the current shows and sights to see in the city while I was there. It was after flipping a few pages in, I noticed that there was a show that I had been unaware of but very much wanted to see. Billy Idol, live at The House Of Blues. It felt almost as if it were a sign to me because that location was so close I was practically living in it. This is what prompted me to take my walk, just to go check out the venue. Something which may have been a bit of a mistake seeing as how by the time I arrived, whatever show had been going on was just getting out. The only thing I could see was glimpses of the inside as the doors held open to accommodate the sea of people rushing out of there. Most of them were drunk or high. Possibly both. I stepped back to check the listing and marquee outside. Billy Idol. He had just got finished performing. It looked like he’d be doing shows the next three nights.

I couldn’t say I was the biggest fan of his but I also couldn’t say I was not a fan. I had been aware of his work since I was much younger. I had cousins and siblings of friends who were older as a grew up and they had taken interest in him. My father, a strict conservative, also played one of his albums nearly all the time in the eighties. It was music I grew up with, enjoyed, and had been exposed to. Same with posters of him here and there. They had scared me just a bit before they started to intrigue me. Mostly because of the theme and the clothing. I had been led to believe he was a vampire. I later realized I was confusing him with a similar looking man from a show called Buffy The Vampire Slayer. It wasn’t until very late into my adulthood that I drew the connection. Something that still makes me smile.

It seemed that tickets were still available, according to the sign, and I was directed to purchase them online. I went to his website and scrolled through the options. After reviewing them, I found I could purchase a ticket in the standing room area for under one hundred dollars and that not only suited my tastes but my budget as well. Once ticket confirmation was had, I slipped my phone back into my pocket and watched the doors start to shut as the final people exited. Except, I slipped behind them and was able to catch the door with my foot. I knew this was something I shouldn’t be doing but I also knew that I only had one life to live and I was going to live it. I was finding more and more inspiration as the moments passed.

Billy Idol had become a symbol to me over my life. He was more than just an icon. This is why I would classify myself as a fan but not really a fan. You see, I wasn’t a fan of his music nearly as much as I was a fan of the person that he was. Not that his music didn’t enthrall me but the man behind that? That’s what I was interested in and always had been. Since the release of his most recent album had come with an autobiography to explore I had finally been able to do both. It was worth it. I hadn’t known he was going to be doing any shows in Vegas when I booked my trip or even before I left. It was almost good that I hadn’t, in a way, or I would have driven myself crazy with anticipation. Now I could just jump right to the good part. The show I’d be attending would be the next night, provided I did not get arrested for entering this arena after things had been ended.

Many times I had done things exactly like this. Especially at concert venues. To start with, I was female and decently attractive. By decently I mean tall, thin, and legs that were said to go up to my neck by random catcallers on busy streets. I wasn’t anywhere near being a hot girl, even if I had attempted to be a hot girl I really only ranked a seven on my best days (eight if I was in darker lighting) but I also wasn’t off-putting. I was older as well, in my early thirties now. All of this meant that it was usually assumed I was genuinely lost if I claimed to be instead of up to no good as if I were a teenager. I was adept at spinning excuses very quickly to get myself out of a jam and playing stupid if I needed to in order to escape trouble. So far, so good, as nothing criminal had ever stuck on my record even if I’d done plenty of things with intent beforehand.

I found that if you were entering a place you should not be, but walked around confidently and with a purpose, people didn’t tend to question you. They assumed you were supposed to be there because this method made you look the least suspicious. Entering a place you weren’t supposed to go then crouching, sneaking, and behaving generally nervous, drew attention to a person. This method had gotten be backstage before and with any luck, it would get me backstage now. I only hoped that I didn’t run into security because, more often than not, they did know everyone who was supposed to be in the general area.

The venue was smaller than I had anticipated it to be and once I got through the second set of double doors I was almost instantly placed right next to the stage. Just off to the side. There were only a few people in here and no security. Billy was on the stage, talking with the other people in the band I assumed had been hired specifically for these shows. They were younger than him and not one of them was recognizable to me as I’d know Steve Stevens and his hair from a mile away. I came into the room more and the door shut behind me, audibly. Since the place had cleared out it was easier to hear things. I continued walking as if I had a right to be there and I was more important than anyone around me. I headed right towards the stage.

“Are you lost?” Billy called in my direction as soon as I got close enough to be seen.

“No, I know exactly where I am,” I replied. I didn’t get on the stage as I didn’t want to appear to be some type of crazy stalker or psychotic fangirl. I just stopped where I was, leaning against it. Being tall, and in heels, my head came right up over the edge but stopped there. I could see him from where I was but had to tilt my head up just slightly. He came towards me, brushing past the three other guys he had been talking to before. They paused to watch for a moment but then shrugged it off as normal and began to speak softly amongst themselves again.

“Maybe I should rephrase that.” He said, dropping down to a crouching position and looking me over. His eyes widened just a bit and his pause was longer than it needed to be. Did he find me attractive? It was certainly possible because if he hadn’t then I’m sure the next move would have been to shout for security, which he did not do. “Are you supposed to be in here?”

“No,” I said.

“Then why are you here?” He asked. There was nothing in his tone that denoted he was upset or annoyed. It was far more curious than anything, almost playful. I smiled at him.

“Because I wanted to meet Billy Idol. Have you see him around?” I asked. His expression went from friendly to one of almost offended until he realized that I was joking and laughed. He hopped down from the stage so we were eye to eye. Almost. I already matched his height without heels so in the platform sandals I was wearing I stood about five inches taller. This nearly put his face at chest level. He looked there for a moment, and I’m unsure why, as my breasts aren’t huge and I wasn’t wearing anything low cut before he adjusted his line of sight to my eyes.

“Don’t know where he went, love. Could try to help you find him. I’m his stunt double.” He said with a cocky grin.

“Really?” I asked, playing along even as my heart began to pound and my stomach flipped. He was mere inches from me at that point and I had, for some stupid reason, decided to go down this avenue of conversation instead of outright stating that I was a fan and it was an honor to meet him. I also didn’t exactly know how to get out of it easily since he was now playing along. “Why would he need a stunt double?”

“You know how those diva rock stars get.” He said waving his hand flippantly as if he were annoyed by some actual rock star he allegedly worked for as a stuntman. I couldn’t help but laugh at this, shaking my head in disbelief.

“I must confess I had no plan to get out of this when I, well, pretended that I didn’t know you are Billy Idol,” I said after another moment. He nodded.

“Could have guessed that. It was fun while it lasted.” He put a hand on my arm gently and rubbed it before moving away from me back towards the stairs that would take him onto the stage. I watched him, from where I was, not moving because there hadn’t been any sort of explicit invitation. He looked amazingly good for his age. His leap from the stage down to me seemed to barely take anything out of him, and he was moving just fine. It made me question if he was fine, or if he had hurt himself and was pretending he hadn’t. The only reason I would question that was that I was well aware of his leg injury and from what I’d heard, it still caused him a decent amount of pain. Those had just been rumors, after all. I didn’t know the man personally nor would I ever have claimed I did just because I listened to his music and read his book. I may have admired him but it was only to the point that he was allowing himself to be admired. The information he released about his life, though brutally honest and overly detailed, was what I knew. I still couldn’t say I knew him as a person.

“Off to call security then?” I called after him.

“Only if you don’t follow me.” He called, not stopping to say it but giving a glance over his shoulder. It took my brain a moment to decide if that was serious or not before I was able to scramble into the action and trip up the stairs behind him almost falling in my heels and breaking my ankle in the process.

“What is this then?” I asked him, “I blatantly break the rules and come in here when I’m definitely not supposed to, only to be rewarded?” He didn’t answer just yet but walked through a door and I kept following stupidly. It wasn’t until we were at a second door and he had it open that he turned to look at me.

“No, you will definitely get a punishment for being naughty.” He said, “But I only see fit to serve that out myself. It’s only fair, don’t you think?” He stepped through the door he was in front of without another glance or word to me. I felt my face flush and my body run hot. This had to be a dream or a trick. Maybe I had stumbled into some reality TV universe and it would all end up being a prank. His gruff voice was already evoking as much arousal from me as humanly possible. My knees weakened and legs started to tremble. It took every ounce of strength I had in the moment to lift one foot and then the other to follow after him.

The door shut behind me and it wasn’t long until I found I was in a green room of some sort. It was nice. Not huge but plenty of space to be punished, if he was indeed serious about doing that. A couch, table, and an area set up with food and drinks. It was cooler in here than it had been in the arena, which made it much nicer. It was probably a relief to him as well since he was still sweating from the show. He sat down on the couch and put his leg up on the coffee table. He wasn’t dressed in the leather pants I was accustomed to seeing him in. Tonight it seemed to be black jeans, a black T-shirt with some rock or punk band logo I wasn’t familiar with, a metal chain around his neck. There were also the typical miscellaneous rings on his fingers. The shirt did a very nice job outlining his muscles. His pants weren’t tight but they weren’t baggy and they were tucked into the black combat boots that topped off the outfit. Had I seen any other man his age in the same outfit with the same spiky and bleached hair I would have found it ridiculous but it worked for him. It would always work for him.

“Well, thank you for inviting me back here but-”

“But what?” He said, “I told you that you were owed a punishment, didn’t I? You think I wasn’t serious?”

“Actually-”

“Come here.” He said very firmly. It wasn’t something I’d say was forceful or even commanding. At least not commanding on purpose, no. His voice by default was deep and rough which made one conjure up images of being commanded if they were in the right frame of mind. However, what I realized in that moment was it was more of a suggestion or even a test. I knew if I declined or started to protest he would be a nice enough man to discontinue this behavior. Something that was easy to tell by the smug grin on his face. The only thing that disappointed me in the moment was that he had yet to refer to himself as daddy, but I couldn’t blame him for not knowing all of my own personal kinks instantly.

That time, I didn’t try to answer again and just walked towards him. Part of him seemed surprised that I was listening. Almost as if he really didn’t have a gameplan after the moment he told me to come over to him. I nearly laughed at it but took a deep breath to prevent the giggles from bubbling over. His eyes traced my body and a tremor of pleasure flowed through me nicely. Bumps starting to raise up on the flesh that was exposed. I was in a plain black T-shirt myself and a black skirt. I’d changed into it to walk around as the pants I’d worn for the trip would have been too hot to travel in the night heat of Vegas comfortably.

“You break into concert venues where you were not invited but take commands very easily despite that. Interesting.” He said.

“I’m an enigma.” I joked. I really actually wasn’t. In fact, my blunt and extremely straight forward, no bullshit attitude cost me a lot of friends. Except, I wasn’t very interested in having a ton of friends. People either liked me for who I was or they could fuck off. I didn’t have time to waste with polite small talk and meaningless banter. It was a choice I’d made far back in high school when I realized how much damn energy it took to conform and how much happier I was when I just did my own thing. He chuckled and patted the area of the couch next to him as if he wanted me to sit. I easily obliged this and joined him there, attempting to give at least a small bit of space between us but right before I could relax completely he pulled me in very close. I yelped in surprise and before I knew it I was over his lap. His firm hand pushing my skirt up over my ass. I squealed and pressed my face into the cushion on the other side of him but did not attempt to make this stop.

“Enigma or not, you’re definitely in need of a spanking.” He chuckled running his hand over my now exposed ass. Well, mostly exposed. It wasn’t as if I weren’t wearing panties but they weren’t doing much to cover the area his hand was pressing firmly against. I whined softly and closed my eyes as I anticipated the first slap. There was quite a moment of anticipation too before it happened. This caused me to jerk from surprise. I thought I’d been ready for it but I had not. It wasn’t painful, or at least not as painful as it could have been and it definitely wasn’t anything I hadn’t experienced before. Maybe the fact of the matter was that the real impact came from the emotional understanding of who was doing this to me and that I wasn’t stopping it. There was another, then another. All of them firm, and in a slow rhythm. As if calculated. Alternating from one cheek to the other. Since I had my face pressed into the fabric of the couch I couldn’t see him and I didn’t dare lift my head to break the spell of the moment. I could feel his growing arousal under me.

After the count of ten, and my ass considerably hotter than when he had started, he stopped. I heard and felt him take in a deep breath. He didn’t attempt to pull the skirt back down. Instead, his hand went back to my ass and gripped it firmly, a nice squeeze before pulling back. My legs were shaking, as was the rest of my body. Arousal so strong it was painful. A nagging ache that begged for attention immediately. It only annoyed me because I was usually not the submissive. In fact, I had worked many years as a pro-dominatrix and every last one of my relationships with a male had been in a BDSM context where I had been dominant. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the capacity to be a submissive because I’d done it on very rare occasions for men I had deeply trusted. This instant servitude from one command and a bit of manhandling had thrown my mind for a loop. Who was he, and why had that worked? I wasn’t even the type to get starstruck to the level of stupidity or consenting to things I didn’t want to do, and at the end of it all I had really liked it but he was basically a stranger to me. Not someone I could trust, yet in an odd way I felt I might already know him. Just from his music.

I hesitated for a moment before lifting myself back up. My face red from humiliation as well as arousal. I did not attempt to sit back down next to him. Instead, I slipped to the floor and knelt by the couch, keeping my eyes forward and contemplating my next move. My eyes scanned the wall then as much of his body as they could without turning my head to directly acknowledge him. There was still silence but it wasn’t particularly uncomfortable. It was almost as if he understood I was thinking and needed a moment to do it. Some unspoken communication, the likes of which I hadn’t ever experienced so quickly with what was essentially a stranger to me. Finally, I turned my head to look up at him.

“I’m not usually a submissive,” I said.

“Could have fooled me.”

“Yeah me too, I don’t know what exactly just happened there,” I replied and shifted so I could get to my feet. I stepped over his leg so I was straddling him but still standing. I lean leaned forward, bending at the waist as I looked down into his eyes. “Maybe I’m going to have to make you pay for that.”

“Maybe I’d like to see you try.” He growled. I smiled and my hand went to the choke chain around his neck, grabbing the loop and pulling it tightly as if he were an unruly dog that I had to get control of.

“I guess we’ll just have to see. Won’t we?” I whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

“You’re used to being dominant then, as in what? Like a dominatrix?” He asked, his eyes lighting up. The only reason they seemed dull before was most likely due to the fact that he had just performed a concert. I knew from online videos (past and current) that all of his concerts were high energy. Passionate. As he had aged he’d still put everything he could into them but being in his early sixties meant less energy, especially by the end. It greatly annoyed me to see comments on videos of people complaining about this. It was as if they wished for him to stay frozen in time. It wasn’t possible. He could simply be not performing at all. To which they’d complain about anyway. Selfish assholes they were. Why wasn’t it good enough that he performed in any capacity? I’d have personally been fine if he stood in the same spot the whole time to sing and didn’t move at all.

“I worked many years as a dominatrix, yes,” I said giving the chain around his neck another small jerk. “I wouldn’t say I am strictly dominant, though, I’m what you’d call a switch. I can be-”

“Either or, I’m familiar with the term.” He said and grabbed my wrist firmly to prevent me from jerking the chain again. He didn’t need to say more than that to tell me he was a switch as well. After reading his book I could see the potential for both. It seemed that he appreciated strong and dominant women as much as he liked to lead them. We’d make a good match if there was a match to be made. I believe chances of that were low beyond one night or a weekend fling but it would certainly be fun while it lasted.

“Then what is it going to be here?” I asked him. Though he had his hand on my wrist he wasn’t doing more than that. He hadn’t pushed me back, pulled me in, or otherwise made an attempt to change my dominant stance over him.

“Looks like we’ll have to fight for it.”

“Do you really think you can win?” I asked and then smirked. His expression morphed into one that I assumed mirrored the cockiness of my own.

“All I can tell you is that my doubt on if I can or cannot win will only serve to push me harder.” He said, his voice low and gruff. It sent chills through me once more. He was definitely at an advantage here. If anything, I had a severe handicap and not because of his physical prowess. It was his voice and always had been his voice. It was part of what had drawn me to him in the first place. The primal growls and screams mixed into his music. The music that was always about sex and drugs. About danger. It seemed that he was exactly what he preached via his melodies. The man embodied every last percentage of his music. Mind, body, and soul.

“Don’t think I’ve ever made this into a competition before. How do we even start?” I asked. He looked me over then around the room as if he were thinking about it. Suddenly, the grip on my wrist tightened and I was grabbed, pulled forward, and shoved back onto the couch. I found myself pinned under him a moment later. Things happened so fast I hadn’t even been able to cry out and now, with him above like that, I could barely catch my breath.

“Like that.” He whispered

“That’s cheating,” I replied, my voice just as soft.

“All’s fair in love and war, sweetheart.” He grinned and grabbed my face, running his thumb roughly over my lips. I am unsure of what compelled me to lean forward and take it into my mouth to suck on it, mostly because that could be seen as a submissive move, but it worked. When he felt my lips and the warm heat of my tongue over his skin, his resolve lessened a bit. His hold on me loosened. It was exactly what I needed. I kept him placated with that for a bit before I made my move.

Slipping out from under him I rolled to the floor, scrambling back up to my feet, only to pounce on top of his back as he knelt on the couch, his hands still in the position they had been as he was on all fours to pin me. The idea that I could pin him with my weight was fairly laughable. I was barely over one hundred pounds and given my height, it was well dispersed. A man with his body could pick me up and throw me across the room if he wished. He shifted so he was flat on the couch, his chest pressed into the cushions under him, head turned to the side. He must have known what I was going for. The choke chain.

“You are aware this is only working because I am allowing it to, yes?”

“Shut up,” I growled and grabbed his hair, digging my nails sharply into his scalp before yanking back on his hair. He let out a roar of pain, and it was much louder than it needed to be. I gathered quickly that it was the type of roar meant to induce more arousal. The type of roar he’d give on stage during a song. Bastard. He was not going to win this. At least, I hoped he wouldn’t. My grip held firm until he eventually needed to lift his head up and back to attempt to relieve some of the tension. It was then that my other hand slipped under his neck and found the loop for the chain.

Keeping the entire linked necklace loose, I slipped it around back, my finger through the front loop. Once it was behind him, I pulled back firmly as if he were an unruly dog on a leash, and choked him for a moment. I didn’t do it with intent to completely restrict his air supply but I definitely had the intent to show him I wasn’t joking around any longer. This wasn’t like working with a former client and typical breathplay. I hadn’t worked out any sort of safe word or signal with him to be able to know if he needed it to stop. As such, I was left in a position where I’d always have to leave him the ability to speak.

“You going to listen yet?” I asked, my other hand finally letting go of his hair. His head dropped and he shook it out. He twisted to get a hand to his neck and throat, where the chain was, attempting to work his fingers between the metal and the neck to gain some control back.

“If you wish to win…I suggest…you choke…harder than that.” He rasped, his hand still searching for a way past the restriction, his voice breathless and laced with lust. My hand started to shake as I almost gave into temptation. This weakened grip was all he needed to feel me slip and get his fingers where they needed to be. Once they were in place he pulled forward on the chain, allowing himself completely full breaths now instead of half-assed labored ones.

“Shit…” I muttered, and I was right to do so because it was only moments later I was crashing to the floor on my back. He had me pinned once more. However he had done that, it certainly hadn’t been as rough as it could have been because it was jarring more than it hurt. It denoted it was a move he’d made before. Considering his life, versus my own, I couldn’t really be too surprised about it. Could I?

“Now,” He whispered leaning in close to get his lips right next to my ear, “You’re going to be a good girl, right?”

“Fuck you,” I whispered and my knee came up hitting him right in the stomach. I hadn’t put as much force into it as I could have, and I knew I shouldn’t have done it at all, the problem was that it was only something I noticed after I had done it. He fell off of me and to the side, rolling onto his back and releasing a groan.

“Damn.” He breathed then coughed.

“Oh God,” I blurted out and scrambled to sit up and move towards him, putting my hand on his cheek gently. “I am so sorry, I can get overly competitive when challenged and I didn’t want to lose, I hate losing. It was a dirty trick and-” Before I could continue his hand came up around the back of my head and I was pulled down into a hungry kiss. It took a moment for me to recover from my annoyance at what had now been revealed to be a trick before I kissed him back with equal passion. He let go of me a moment later, pushing me back, a smirk twisting over his lips.

“Pity,” He said, “I was hoping you were too smart to fall for that.”

“Shut up, no you weren’t,” I said and slapped his chest playfully. “Maybe it would be best if we called it a draw.”

“Perhaps.” He said, sitting up as well. “But if we do that, where’s the fun and what is the prize?” He moved a hand to my thigh and started to shift it upward to push my skirt along with it. I didn’t stop him. Instead of doing that, or sitting there and just taking it this time, my hands move to his pants. I unzipped them slowly. This caused him to pause, which in turn caused me to pause. As if testing it, he moved his hand up another inch but then stopped. I unbuttoned his pants as a response but stopped there as well.

“I don’t intend on making this easy for you,” I said.

“I can very well see that, love.” He replied and moved back so he was better able to rest against the couch. “You know, I don’t even know your name.”

“Lisa.” I replied, “Lisa Brixton. Not sure why it matters now.”

“Need to know who’s name to scream when I’m blowing my load.” He laughed.

“Who says I’m even going to let that happen tonight?” I asked, a curious grin spreading over my face.

“You won’t be able to help yourself, darling.” He told me.

“Really? You think?” I asked.

“I know.” He whispered. “I could make you cum in less than a minute.”

“Bullshit.”

“No, really.” He said. “Think I have you all figured out. Not much of an enigma as you want me to think.”

“Fine. Since you are so damn cocky, prove it. You have a minute and I’ll be timing it.” I got out my phone and held it up so he could see it. From there I set the timer to one minute and hovered my thumb over the start button. “If you can’t do it?”

“Then I’ll have to wait until tomorrow I suppose.” He said. My heart fluttered hearing that. The idea that not only would I see him tomorrow but he was already planning it made me nearly dizzy with excitement. “What happens when I win?”

“If.”

“When.” He growled, his voice firm as he made very strong eye contact with me. I felt my face redden with that familiar aroused heat from before, or any time he used that sort of inflection. Whether he meant to, or not. Fuck. He was probably right. No, definitely right. I wanted to win, really really wanted to, but I knew I wouldn’t. I’d definitely put up a fight though.

“Okay, when then, what happens? What do you win?”

“I win the right to fuck you so damn hard you regret challenging me in the first place.” He said. There was no way I was going to disagree to those terms. All of this seemed like a win win situation for me. Probably to him too. Especially since I didn’t in any way believe I could or would win. He snatched my phone from my hand then stood up so he could sit back down on the couch. “Come here, in my lap, now.”

I nodded and I couldn’t move fast enough to meet his demands. This led me nearly flaling awkwardly as I more tripped into his lap than sat on it properly. He didn’t seem to mind. He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer. The phone was held up in my line of vision so I could see the timer had started. Then, he tossed it onto the couch and got to work. There wasn’t any real time for foreplay, but it wasn’t as if what we were doing before hadn’t been some type of warm up to this moment. He pressed me closer to him his face going into my neck where he bit at my skin. A hand slipping past the waistband of my skirt and right into my panties. I gasped and closed my eyes, lowering my head just a bit so I could rest on his shoulder.

I felt his skilled fingers run over my wet folds, teasing me a bit. His mouth and tongue on the skin of my neck as he sucked, licked and kissed. His fingers exploring me. One of them found my clit and started to stroke it. His hands were rough but that only made for a better sensory experience. I stifled my groan against his neck, I’d never been much of a vocal partner for one, but for two, I didn’t want to give him any sense that what he was doing was the right thing. If he did, then he’d only be more encouraged and get cockier. I don’t think it mattered much, though. My cunt was wet, I could feel it which meant he definitely could by that point. I gasped again as a finger was slipped into me and in response to this, I bit into his neck tightly.

“Fuck…” he breathed, “You are quite ready for this aren’t you?” He whispered starting to move his hand again. It was almost as if he were playing an instrument, and I could tell that the only virgin here at anything was me. There probably wasn’t something he hadn’t done in this realm. I knew his life story and I knew he knew how to please anyone he had to please.

“Shut up.”

“Make me.” He growled getting a second finger in a moment later. I shuddered, my climax quickly approaching. The combination of the growl and the command really doing it for me. I couldn’t help but thrust my hips more towards him and his fingers as his thumb started to press against my clit in random pressurize intervals sending periodic jolts of pleasure through me. God, I was so close. I also had no way of seeing the timer on the phone with how I was positioned. I had to be close to a minute right? Maybe? Fuck. He was going to win and as much as I was ready for it I wasn’t.

“You’re…cheating.” I panted.

“How?” He asked.

“You damn well know…how.” I hissed, my hips speeding up their fevered motion towards his hand. At that point, he pressed his thumb firmly against my clit and started to move it in a circular motion. I cried out, my hands moving to his arms, my nails digging into the flesh that I could find there.

“You mean, with my voice?” He growled again. That’s what did it. Such an innocuous statement but the vibrations and the gruffness ripped through me as if I’d been literally stabbed with pleasure. I let out a bit of a cry then bit into his neck again, hard enough that I definitely made him bleed. I could taste it. My hips bucked and jerked towards his hand wildly as I orgasmed at least two times before I found it within me to be able to calm down. I realized in that moment, as clarity came back to me, I had been biting him the entire time. Like some kind of animal intent on not allowing its prey to escape. I’d been holding my breath too. I gasped loudly as I pulled back, it was then I felt something drip down my lip and over my chin.

I blinked a few times and looked at him, and his neck. The bite mark wasn’t very severe, and nothing that wouldn’t be easily fixed after basic first aid, it was bleeding, though. His blood had to be what was on my face. He reached up, looking smug and wiped it away with his thumb as his hand moved from my panties to his lips to suck on his fingers and get a nice taste. It was after that moment that he grabbed the phone and picked it up to show it to me. I’d made it about 20 seconds. Obviously, when I had started to climax he had the presence of mind to stop it, just to prove his point. I laughed breathlessly and then slapped him.

“Hey! Don’t slap me because you lost you fucking bitch!” He cried, his tone was still playful so I knew I hadn’t actually upset him, or hurt him for that matter.

“All’s fair in love and war, isn’t that what you said earlier, Billy?”

“Didn’t mean for you to take that as a free pass to slap me around.” He chuckled, “But I suppose I’d be pretty upset too if I lost so badly.”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s right, isn’t it? Time for Daddy to get his prize.” He placed his hands on my hips and threw me back onto the couch. I yelped as he shoved my skirt up and yanked my panties completely down. I was more stunned that this was happening than anything else in the moment so I didn’t try to counteract what he was doing. Not that I would have even without being stunned. I’d offered him this chance and he had won. Not only won but really fucking flamed me with that time. Twenty seconds? He probably felt like a God.

“D-Don’t do that…” I breathed.

“What?” He paused and I think he thought that I meant for him to not fuck me, it took me a moment to realize that I’d only said half of what I’d meant to say.

“Sorry, I meant, don’t refer to yourself as Daddy.”

“Well, you know telling me not to do something only makes me want to do it more, yes?” He laughed and got his pants and boxers down just enough to remove his cock. It was a pity that at that angle and as close to me as he was I didn’t really get a good look at it but I certainly did feel it as he slammed into me. I screamed out, the pleasure and pain combination of sensory overload catching me in the moment. Not that he seemed to care too much as he began to thrust. Fuck was he good at this. I moved to put my hands on his shoulders, my legs pulling back to allow him to enter me deeper.

“Oh God do I ever know…” I moaned.

“Good because Daddy doesn’t intend to stop.” He warned and sped up his pace. The thrusts were relatively painful but the kind of pain that really only made the moments of pleasure far more enjoyable. He was really into this, more so than any recent partner I had done anything with. I liked it. I could see the look in his eyes and on his face. As if he were very determined, but hungry as well. He was growling softly too, I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or just something he did, but I was melting.

It didn’t take him very long to finish, not that I expected it too and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. Though I did not orgasm a third time, I wasn’t upset with that either. There was such an emotional and psychological satisfaction watching him orgasm and being able to comprehend the moment, filing it into my memory. Had I climaxed as well, I’d have missed it and this memory would be worth every last cent that I paid to make this trip. When he was finished, he collapsed on top of me, but only for a moment before shifting us so we were both on our sides, facing each other.

“Did you…”

“Sorry, no.” I said, “But trust me, I’m not unsatisfied and the orgasms you gave me before more than made up for it. I really only want to make sure you feel good. Besides, you made me cum in twenty seconds, Billy. That’s gotta do something for your ego.” He laughed and pulled me in closer, pressing his face into my shoulder for a moment. I felt him trying to hurry to catch his breath so he could speak again.

“I will see you tomorrow then?” He asked after another moment.

“Who says I even have to leave tonight? I think that is entirely up to you.” I said, my hand coming up to stroke his hair. After that, we lay there in silence. He didn’t make any move to hurry and kick me out and I wasn’t in a hurry. I supposed I’d get an answer when he was ready to give it but for now, I would take pleasure in this moment and enjoy what I had while it lasted. It was the only time I would have it.


	3. Chapter 3

“I’m staying at the Four Seasons.” He muttered right as I had begun to doze off. I snorted in a loud gasp of air, startled by the sudden break in the silence. My eyes opened and I looked at him. This hadn’t been a dream. This was all crazy but it hadn’t been a dream and now I was unsure what I had done or if it had even been the right thing to do. This was like a bad romance novel or really bad fan fiction. What did I even think we could possibly have as any sort of a future and why was I listening to this?

“Huh?” Was all I managed to come out with in the next moment.

“The Four Seasons. I have a room there.” He moved away from me gently so he could sit up and make himself decent. I watched him, stupidly, half dressed from where I still lay on the couch already missing laying next to someone like that but knowing that it was futile to invest in this far too much.

“Look, Billy,” I started, shifting into a sitting position and deftly reaching for my panties on the floor, “I know how this is. You are a rockstar type guy who is on the road having fun and I’m just kind of that girl who you slept with before you went back home. It’s likely no different from any other hundreds or thousands that you’ve done this with. I’m not just a…weekend fling. Hell, I’m really not even a one night stand but you have powers I can’t explain. That, what just happened, that’s a big fucking no-no for me in everyday life.”

“Lisa-”

“No just, let me finish.” I cut him off, “I’m not your typical fan. At all. Which of course makes me sound like a hundred other typical fans but I really mean that and I know that. I talk to your fans, the other ones, what few of them I can find on the internet. They want 80s Billy Idol. The punk guy. The image. I want the real you. The human being. The man who wrote that amazing book and that amazing album. I don’t want the teen dream in the magazine. I don’t want the idea of the functional, successful, adult celebrity who has it all together. I don’t want your money, I certainly don’t want your fame, I want you as a person. I want the arguably fucked up man from that book. I don’t mean any of this in a bad way but you, as a flawed human being is everything I ever wanted because we match in ways you could never understand and I could never explain in five minutes. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I was born 20 years too late to ever have the chance I want and damn well feel I deserve because you’re already taken, regardless of how many groupies you bang it will never, ever be anything more than this and that is not fair to me.”

He just stood there staring at me. I wasn’t sure what the expression was meant to be, honestly. Shock, confusion, offense, sadness? It was rather blank. A brick wall of non-emotion that my brain either couldn’t quantify or was far too tired to. Instead of trying to speak more, I looked away, grabbed my panties, and pulled them on under my skirt as I stood up. Carefully, I walked over to him and put a hand on his arm.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly. He continued to give me that weird look before moving away and walking over to a bag on the floor by one of the tables in the room. I sighed. The silent treatment, that was always great. Shaking my head, I started to move towards the door. Of course, my honesty and integrity had to blow this before it even began but at least I’d have some memories. Bittersweet, but I had them. My hand on the door knob I felt his hand on my shoulder from behind. I turned to look at him, he was holding up a key card for a hotel room between his index and middle finger.

“I said I was staying at the Four Seasons.” He grabbed my hand and put the card into it then closed my hand around it. I stood there completely still, I’m sure I was just as completely blank in that moment as he had been when I’d given my entire speech. My mouth had gone dry. “Room 3508. Walk in there like you own the place and you won’t be questioned.”

“But…”

“You did it here just fine.” He said then smiled and stepped back from me. I smiled back but it was certainly a weak one. Clutching the card in my hand I headed out of there, taking that as my cue to leave. Certainly, someone would be missing him soon enough and he probably had things left to do here, I didn’t know. I also didn’t know if I was going to go see him or call it quits right then and there. This was far too much for a woman like me to handle. I was a nobody and he was everything. How could I ever face him again? Especially after what I had said.

Once I got back to my hotel room, I tossed the keycard onto the dresser and headed into the bathroom to take a shower. A very long and hot shower. It was only at that point that I was able to decompress and cry heavily about this entire thing. I had nothing left for me in the city from which I came. I knew I’d ultimately end up back there, being no one, experiencing nothing. I’d die there. Alone. It wasn’t as if I expected Billy Idol specifically to rescue me because I’d always, my entire life, been able to rescue myself. Pull myself out of everything. No one was ever there for me and I was still living. I was still making my way. I was still pushing on. Thirty years of this life would tire anyone out. Too tired to keep living too scared to die. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Constantly feeling like I was dealt the wrong hand and something had been fucked up along the way.

Unwanted since birth. Given up for adoption and handed to parents who used and abused me. The scapegoat and black sheep. The problem child that was at the front of every family problem and conflict. Led to believe that if I hadn’t been there, or hadn’t been born, the family would have been perfect. It was always me. Just me. From day one I was passed off to others. Too much of a problem for my mother, my adoptive parents, my teachers…no one wanted to listen to me. No one ever let me speak. I never told my story. I never would get to tell my story. I wrote plenty of things. I had plenty of followers but that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough because it wasn’t a large enough audience. I wasn’t truly being heard.

I supposed it was selfish to ask this. To ask the entire world fall at my feet and listen to me. To think that I was such an amazing author that I deserved that recognition. The truth was, that I had never felt talented. At least not to the level of some award winning author. I believed that I had stories to tell, good stories and original stories. That my ideas alone, that would be enough to carry me. It hadn’t been. No matter what corner I turned or avenue I tried. I could make a very meager amount of money from my online book sales or donations to my website but no one cared enough to take it further. No one ever would care.

I didn’t want Billy’s fame or the fame of anyone else. I wanted my own fame. My own name. My own audience that I had built myself. I didn’t want a handout. I didn’t want money. I just wanted to be heard. That’s all I ever wanted from anyone, was to be heard. My parents never listened, nor did anyone else around me. I was the silly little girl with delusional dreams of one day being a writer. An incompetent spaz who couldn’t write. How cute. She thinks she’s going to be famous. Let’s humor her for a while, that is until she’s an adult and it’s time to tell her she has no support and she’s behaving too much like a dreamer and not an adult. The dreamer that came to Vegas and even quite possibly dreamed up that interaction with Billy Idol. Maybe I really was going insane. Most days it felt that way. At least recently.

I climbed out of the shower and grabbed a towel. Wrapping it around myself I went to the sink and grabbed my toothbrush, looking into the mirror for a moment as I did. I looked like a mess. The water in there hadn’t nearly done anything to get my makeup off so it was mostly streaked over my cheeks and around my eyes. My wet, red hair, was flattened against my face. My eyes bloodshot from exhaustion and crying. Had any of that really even happened? It really was like bad fan fiction. I left the bathroom to grab some makeup remover and saw the keycard again.

“He’s fucking crazy if he thinks I’m going back there,” I said to myself. It was comforting to hear a voice, even if it was my own. Something I’d done for a very long time to feel soothed. Especially since I was used to being locked in a room instead of being acknowledged. Most of my life had been spent in forced isolation and I’d learned to deal with it through either literal talking to myself or an extensive fantasy life. Maybe I’d finally gone so deep into the hole I believed this was happening.

Once I got the makeup remover, I went back into the bathroom and worked on cleaning up my face. It would be best to approach this problem as I approached every other one. Extreme avoision to it. If I avoided confrontation, never went to the hotel, and skipped the concert, I would be much better off. What I’d already gotten from him, dream or not, was good enough. I shouldn’t expect more and he certainly didn’t owe it to me. I was here to relax not get more stressed out and I vowed that it was exactly what I was going to do. No matter what. I only wished that my curiosity wasn’t strong enough to break that promise, as was also usual.

The next morning I woke up and also felt hungover. I knew I wasn’t because I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol the night before and generally tended to avoid it, but I still felt that way. Maybe it was more of an emotional hangover than anything else. I forced myself to get out of bed around noon and stop feeling sorry for myself. I passed that key card for his hotel room a dozen times before leaving to get lunch. Usually when I felt this shitty eating something helped me cheer up.

There was a buffet in the casino so that’s where I found myself next. I paid for my plate and entered. I ate my fill as I browsed my phone and texted a few of my friends. I didn’t mention anything about Billy Idol. At least not more than buying a ticket to his concert on a whim. I wasn’t the type of girl to fuck and tell, and even if I was, he did deserve some privacy in this matter. It was something I wanted to keep to myself. Only a memory that I could have. Sharing it would cheapen the moment and the value. It was hard not to tell. Really hard. Especially to the few friends I had who were also fans of his and would have loved to hear about it.

I checked my email and drank down the last of my coffee then strayed into the casino to gamble a bit. After somehow winning a hundred dollars at a few rounds of blackjack I was feeling far less sorry for myself but decided to quit right then and there. I wasn’t the optimistic type and had convinced myself that I’d just start losing if I kept letting it ride. I headed back up to my room and went through my bag until I found my bathing suit. After putting my hair up and applying sunscreen to my ridiculously white skin, I packed a small bag of stuff with the intent to head out to the pool and listen to music while I read things on my phone or texted my friends. The key card caught my eye once more. Shit.

Was he really serious? Really? After how I’d behaved and the last things I’d said to him? What did he want from me? That couldn’t have possibly happened, right? Fuck. If there was any problem I had other than attempting to avoid difficult situations, it was an obsession with figuring them out. Searching for the truth. I was already well aware I’d never get the truth from my parents. About why they treated me like they did despite allegedly wanting me bad enough to adopt me. I knew that I would never get the truth on who my real father was. I knew these things very well but it still didn’t stop me from attempting to find a better way to understand them. Beyond the obvious answers, at least. This was going to be the same thing and I hated myself for it.

I grabbed a pair of jean shorts and a hoodie jacket then pulled it on. Slipping into my far less high heeled sandals, I took the key card and packed it into my pool bag. I’d just go there, it would be very quick. He was performing that night so there was a good chance he wouldn’t even be there. That would be best for me. Then I wouldn’t have to face him. Right. He would not be there and I would realize how stupid I was being by the time I reached his door. Then I could laugh about this later as I flew back home to my life full of absolute nothingness.

I entered the hotel lobby just as he had told me to do. Just as I had entered the concert venue that night. The key card was in my hand but not obviously so. I just pretended that I had a room there and I was heading for that room. The only reason I held the key casually was so it appeared I really did have a room. As expected, no one gave me any sort of hassle (even despite the fact that I was completely under dressed compared to how that lobby looked). I wondered how Billy could even feel comfortable at a place like this since he wasn’t one to typically dress up or really be fancy. At least, he never came across as that type of person to me.

As the elevator doors shut I breathed a huge sigh of relief and rested against the guard rail to be taken up to the 35th floor which is where I assumed room 3508 was. That was the only thing that made sense. The doors dinged and opened and I stepped out into the hallway. This wasn’t a normal hallway or a normal floor. This was one of the ones with suites. That was instantly obvious from the decor and the fact that each room door was very far from the next one. Shit, what was I even doing here? This was stupid and I needed to leave. Cursing under my breath I stepped forward into the hall and heard the doors shut behind me. I turned and saw that it was definitely heading down. If I wanted to catch it again, I’d have to wait. I had time to kill regardless.

The sign in front of me with arrows pointing in either direction showed me which way to go and very unwillingly, I headed in the direction of 3508. Once I was there, I started to question if I really had the right room. Maybe I’d heard him wrong. I already had a lame disorder with numbers that caused me to flip them. Could I have done that? No. There wasn’t a floor fifty-three here and any other combination didn’t make sense either. I could have been wrong. Maybe he said five-oh-eight and I had some how added a three in there. No, that didn’t make sense either. Fuck it.

I stood there just staring at the door for the longest time. My hand raised up stupidly like I wanted to knock but I didn’t actually knock. He wouldn’t be in there anyway, I was sure of it, but apparently not so sure that I wasn’t walking away. Not so sure that I wasn’t knocking to confirm. He’d given me the key though. It denoted he wanted me to just walk right in. It was a more friendly invitation than knocking or stopping by to see if he was there. Right? But he wouldn’t be there. I had to keep that in mind because if I thought any different I would surely bolt down the hall and start pounding the elevator button as quickly and firmly as I possibly could.

“Fuck my life,” I muttered and knocked on the door loudly. I winced and took a step back, trying to calm my breathing. There was a long pause then some muffled shouting. It sounded like I was being told to come in. I wasn’t sure, though, so I took a step closer to the door. I heard some scrambling around in there, then a loud bang as something fell, a bunch of cursing and then another command to “come the fuck in already”. Dammit, well it was now or never. I could get to the elevator in the next five seconds if I wanted to but I’d be waiting there and there was no way he wouldn’t see me. Fine. If this was what he wanted I’d give it to him but it was definitely a mistake on his part and he’d find that out soon enough. He was out of my league, and it really should only take five minutes to explain that to him, right? I moved the key card and placed it into the slot as I prepared to live the very last happy moments of my life as they went down in a blaze of glory.


	4. Chapter 4

Once the key reader turned green I grabbed the handle and pushed it down to get the door open. To my surprise, Billy was on the floor on his back, no shirt and some black jeans looking at his phone very casually. Considering what I had heard moments before that I could only assume he was in a hurry to get to the door and had fallen, then decided to make it look like all of that was on purpose. The nerves I had been feeling somewhat melted away and I laughed softly. He had a suite so the area I had just stepped into was large and very nice.

“Comfortable?” I asked, walking over to him and looking down. He glanced at me for a moment before going back to his phone as if I had interrupted him and this was a perfectly normal activity for him to be doing. It was only when I noticed there was a bite mark on his neck that I was able to confirm to myself the night before had not been a dream. My mouth went dry and I could feel beads of sweat breaking out over my forehead. This was crazy. I was crazy. Yet, I was still there and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop myself without some sense of closure on the matter.

“Very.” He said, “This is good for my back.”

“So you didn’t just trip and fall trying to get to the door? Who did you think I was, anyway and how did you know I would have a key?” I asked, moving to toss my bag onto the couch before sitting down next to it. The room definitely smelled like someone had been smoking pot and I wasn’t blind to the fact that it would have been him. From what I knew he was a fan of the stuff. I hadn’t had any in years at that point, it had never been my drug of choice and when I did do it, it was only socially.

“To be quite honest I was hoping you were room service or had brought food.” He replied and finally sat up, turning to look at me. “Did you bring food?”

“How high are you right now?”

“No higher than I was last night.” He replied.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” I said.

“Do you have food or don’t you?” He smirked and finally got to his feet. “To answer the rest of your question, well, if you were room service you’d have said it and I wasn’t expecting anyone else who I also know has a key. If you hadn’t brought a key you’d have told me. You let yourself in. Just common sense, really.”

“I suppose,” I said. I could definitely see his point and I knew he wasn’t an idiot but that was some good logic for someone who was obviously eight miles high in the moment. “If you are good at anticipating the human mind, it leaves nothing to chance.”

“What?” He asked and got up completely to walk over to the couch where I was, sitting right next to me. His eyes traced my body for a moment, “What is this you are wearing? A sweat shirt in the middle of the afternoon? In Vegas?”

“It’s a quote from a movie,” I said, “As for what I am wearing…” I unzipped the hoodie and shrugged it off to reveal that the only thing on under it was the bikini top. He grinned and moved in to get his face near my neck, his hot breath on my skin. For a moment I almost considered letting him but I knew that I couldn’t. Not until I had some answers here. I put my hand on his chest and pushed him back before standing up quickly.

“Why the hell did you wear that here if you didn’t want me to do that?”

“I was trying to go to the pool, in my hotel, not here. Then I saw that stupid key card you gave me and well…curiosity killed the cat.” I replied.

“Certainly had fun with your cat last night.” He chuckled.

“Billy,” I started but then couldn’t stop myself from laughing for a moment, a hand coming to my face to shield it before managing to regain composure, “This outfit isn’t for you, I just…I needed some answers. I wore the hoodie because most of these buildings are heavily air conditioned. Besides, I didn’t want to walk through the lobby in only a bikini top and short shorts.”

“Can I get you something to drink?” He asked, standing up again. I was quickly growing impatient with the lack of direction this conversation was taking. It wasn’t as if I wasn’t used to dealing with potheads because I entirely was, it was just that usually, they had more of an attention span. A man like him, who probably existed on pot did too, and that could only mean he was avoiding this on purpose. I sat back down, except this time I sat in a chair, not on the couch, it would limit his ability to sit next to me and tempt me with more close contact.

“Water is fine,” I replied. “Look, I don’t know why you wanted me to visit you know. After what I said last night. Why?”

“I think it’s interesting.”

“Interesting? That’s what you have to say about this? Interesting?” I asked, “Not anything else? You aren’t even slightly upset?”

“No, should I be?”

“I don’t know, maybe…” I said, “Aren’t you married?”

“I think you need to just stop asking questions and enjoy the moment. Live every day as if it’s your last.” He said walking to the small bar in the room and grabbing me a bottle of water from the mini fridge. He came to where I was sitting and held it out to me. I glared up at him and took it.

“I could do that, but I’m not a nihilist.” I said, “I mean, at this point you’d think I would be but some part of me can’t stop hoping that maybe there’s more to this suffering we call life than any of us can comprehend. I agree that also may make me stupid but it’s the one tiny ray of hope that keeps me from going insane with the idea that death is more than likely a horribly bleak finality that we never come back from.”

“Fair enough.” He said and stepped over to the window, looking out of it for a moment. He turned to look at me. “But, if this were your last night on earth, what would you want to do?”

“No offense but probably not go to a Billy Idol concert.” I laughed, “I’d probably spend it doing drugs.”

“Really?”

“I had well, a problem with them when I was younger. Let’s just call it that. If I knew tonight was my last night on earth, I’d gladly get myself wasted into oblivion because why would it matter in the morning? There wouldn’t be a morning.” I said. No sooner had I spoken those words, then it happened. A plane literally fell out of the sky. I saw it out of the window in the distance. Though it wasn’t close enough to be fatal to us, the shockwave blew all of the windows in and the boom of it was deafening. I was thrown to the floor, knocked out of my chair. My ears ringing and my vision blurry.

Determined not to pass out from this I attempted desperately to maintain my breathing and be sure I still was breathing.

They say if you don’t hear the crash, you’re already dead.

I shook my head and closed my eyes tightly. Deep breath in, hold, slowly release, hold. Repeat. Whatever that was and why it had happened, was not going to allow me to panic. I’d never seen anything like it. The event only lasted maybe five seconds at most but it seemed like extremely slow motion as it had. The most horrifying part of it was, that it hadn’t looked like a crash. Not a deliberate one. Not an attack. It honestly looked like it fell straight down. As if all of the engines had stopped working all at once and it lost any sort of ability to glide or navigate.

I don’t know how long I stayed in that position trying to slow my breathing and calm myself but when I opened my eyes, things seemed a lot more clear. I could hear better and the ringing had dulled quite a bit. Outside I could hear screaming, car alarms, and other explosions. Possibly gunshots as well. We were on the thirty-fifth floor and it was slowly dawning on me that all of the power had gone out as well. No lights. Nothing. Anywhere. Then I saw him, on the ground, face first, and not moving.

“Billy!” I cried, moving towards him quickly. There were shards of glass in his back. Luckily it all seemed like superficial wounds. No large chunks, no metal. Like the ones in my arm. Wait…fuck. I looked around the room and inched back to grab my hoodie to wrap it around my arm before going back to him. “Billy? Hey…hey please be alive.” I begged, my fingers going to his neck to check for a pulse. I certainly wasn’t a medical professional of any type but checking someone’s pulse wasn’t the hardest thing to learn how to do either.

In my terror, it took me a moment to find the throbbing pulse that would indicate a heartbeat but it was there. I sighed a breath of relief and removed the hoodie from where I had wrapped it. I was going to need to get this glass out and I was quickly thinking that going right to a hospital wasn’t an option considering how incredibly impossible it would be in this chaos. Ultimately, these wounds were not that bad. They were painful, yes, but basic first aid, we could take care of it together.

“Say something,” I told him, turning my attention to my arm. I gingerly started to pick the glass out. Shard by shard. At least the ones that weren’t so embedded in there that I’d have to dig around or go find a pair of tweezers. Once that was done, I wrapped it up tightly again hoping to use the pressure to stem some of the blood flow. I couldn’t tell if I would need stitches but there wasn’t a ton of blood so it was doubtful. At least I certainly hoped it was.

“Like what?” He muttered, not lifting his head. At least he was now showing signs of consciousness and comprehension to my words. “The fuck just happened?”

“A plane fell out of the sky,” I said.

“Are you fucking shitting me?” He rasped, finally lifting his head enough to turn it and look in my direction. “I feel like I was hit by a truck.”

“Same.” I sighed, “You have glass in your back, I need to get it out.”

“Like hell you do.”

“Listen to that, all that noise outside, do you think we’re getting to a hospital anytime soon?” I asked, “None of it looks too deep in there, superficial, and worse comes to worse I’ll…stitch you up?”

“Oh, you did not sound even slightly confident about that.” He snapped.

“Guess what, like it or not, the power is out it’s utter fucking chaos outside, and you need help. Either let me help you or bleed to death on the goddamn floor!” I yelled at him, slowly getting to my feet, not realizing how dizzy I was until I was fully standing. Out of all of the things I could have ever thought might happen, this certainly was not one of them and if I didn’t keep my mind busy on a task I was going to start screaming and never be able to find a way to stop.


	5. Chapter 5

I got him onto the bed, wondering how the hell I was going to also deal with the windows being blown in. It was so loud outside. Maybe I was just in a lot of pain and it’s what caused me to notice the noise far more than I normally should have. So much screaming. Periodically there would be explosions and gun shots. I was too afraid to go look out there, not that I would have been able to see much from the floor we were on, but considering there was no power and no TV it might have given me some indication. I was too afraid to check my phone and attempt to get real information. If there was any yet.

“Okay just keep still,” I said, my voice shaking and not in any way reassuring. This was because I hated blood. A lot. I still knew the better option was to get the glass out of his back and he wasn’t going to be able to do it himself so I didn’t have a choice. I just had to keep reminding myself of who he was and that I could not let him die. No matter what happened.

“Did you think I planned on doing anything else?” He asked.

“Very funny,” I muttered and got up looking around the room for tweezers. There weren’t any. I checked the bathroom, going through a bunch of his stuff before I found some, as well as a bottle of rubbing alcohol. This was going to suck. Not just for him but for me as well considering I was going to have to use it on my arm. I settled back on the bed, kneeling by him, and I ripped off a pillow case from one of the pillows after that. “You aren’t going to want to keep still while I do this.”

“Just get it over with already, bloody hell!”

“Fine!” I yelled at him and leaned in. I had to concentrate and breathe through my mouth because the smell of blood always made me nauseous. Not to mention the sight of it. Even my own. I was amazed I hadn’t passed out, or vomited, or both. It was probably due to the adrenaline rush of seeing a plane fall out of the sky. I started to pick the glass out carefully, anything I could see. After which point I poured some of the rubbing alcohol onto the pillow case and would clean the cuts as best I could. To my surprise, he actually was fairly still. That was other than involuntary twitches and all of the cursing. It reminded me that he’d had much worse injuries and probably had a higher pain tolerance than me. When I finished I moved back quickly and went right over to the windows. The intent there was to get fresh air before I actually did puke or pass out.

“Done then?”

“Yeah.” I managed to croak out. I sterilized the tweezers with the alcohol I was still holding and picked out the last few shards of glass from my arm before disinfecting everything.

“How bad is it?”

“Outside or your back?”

“Little of both.”

“I can’t really see anything going on down there. Still a lot of panic, fires, explosions.” I said, “I mean, as long as this building doesn’t catch on fire we will be safe here for a bit. Maybe we should barricade the door.”

“What the hell for?”

“I don’t know, just a feeling I have,” I said. Something didn’t seem right from what little I could see outside. It probably was just a bunch of people panicking but I couldn’t shake the feeling there was more to it, especially not with how that plane crashed. It had seemed so unnatural. Then again, I’d never really seen a plane crash other than the 9/11 attacks. It certainly hadn’t looked like that but, why so much chaos for something that definitely happened well in the distance. It wasn’t adding up and I didn’t like it.

“I’m not in any shape to barricade anything you know.” He said.

“I’m aware of that.” I muttered and moved away from the window to look around the room. “Hang on, I’ll be right back.”

I left there quickly and headed into the main area of the suite where we had started. I looked around to see what would be the easiest to move towards the door but also heavy enough to block it. In the end, I was able to somehow push the couch in front of it as well as use the deadbolt and chain on the door. Once that was finished I went over to the mini bar area and grabbed as many snacks and other food items as I could hold and brought them into the bedroom. I dropped them in there and went back. After three trips of this I had cleared out almost the entire area of everything from actual food to alcohol. I shut the door to the bedroom and was ready to push the dresser in front of it when Billy made some kind of noise. Like a growl. I turned to look at him.

“Get the pot.”

“Really?” I asked.

“It’s good shit, expensive too.” He said, “Most of it’s in the other room.” I rolled my eyes but he probably had a point. I was in pain and there wasn’t any way he couldn’t have been. That would help, him at least. It was tempting to get really high but one of us was going to have to be coherent. Also, I hadn’t ever been a huge pothead, but he smoked a lot of it. He’d be able to cope under the influences of it far more. In the end, I did what he said before coming back and shutting the door. Then the dresser was pushed in front of it and I collapsed to the floor, breathing hard.

“There.” I said, “We’re safe.”

“You can do a lot of heavy lifting for a skinny bird.”

“Uh…thanks,” I said not wanting to mention my actual job at home dealt with a ton of manual labor. Mostly lifting and sorting things, not to mention taking out trash. It was how I’d afforded this trip in the first place. If the world actually was ending out there I didn’t suppose my ‘real job’ mattered now. If I got Billy out of this, and alive, I was sure that my life was going to change. If he died, it would change for the worse. Whatever was going on outside, good or bad, this was the start of something new and I had to find a way to make the best of it while I could.

At some point, I dozed off. I wasn’t sure when, but I must have finally crashed due to the adrenaline of the moment wearing off. It wasn’t until I heard a voice trying to get my attention that my eyes finally opened. I groaned softly, my body was entirely sore and I had fallen asleep on the floor. That was just great. Now someone was yelling at me. Oh right, a plane had fallen out of the sky and I was in a hotel room alone with Billy Idol. Either I had died and gone to heaven or died and gone to hell. I was pretty sure heaven wouldn’t let either of us in. I was also pretty sure heaven would be super boring because that’s where all the good people went. I shook my head and made myself sit up. Billy was sitting up in bed smoking a joint.

“What?” I asked.

“Check my back. Still bleeding.” He said.

“I’m not sure there’s much I can do about it if it is.” I said, “Our only option would be to cauterize it and by our I mean mine and that is so dangerous. Could lead to massive infection, sepsis…”

“Or I could bleed out right here and now.”

“True, but instead of trying to do anything yourself you decided rolling a joint and smoking it was the best course of action.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do about my back bleeding?” He asked, “Bloody hell.”

“Okay, you have a point,” I said and came over to him the moment I found the actual energy to do so. I shoved him away from the pillow and looked at his back. He wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t that he was gushing blood, but considering that the rest of the wounds had at least stopped or were only slightly oozing, this one was a problem. I looked down at the pillow he’d been rested again. Whether he had meant to or not he had been applying pressure to the area via the pillow. That had stemmed the flow, which became apparent as it only bled more once he was pulled away. “You really want me to cauterize this?”

“I would more prefer I don’t die this way.” He said, “The options here are try to find help, or take care of this before I pass out. You’re the one insistent that it’s dangerous outside.”

“It very well may be,” I said then moved over to my stuff to grab my phone, which I should have done in the first place. Except, it wasn’t working. Well, the actual phone powered on and did everything just fine but there was no internet connection. That didn’t make sense. Obviously, the wifi in the hotel would be out but any cell tower in this huge city wasn’t working. That was a little too indicative of a problem. I went to the actual landline and picked it up.

“Not working, tried it.” He said.

“Great, the phone isn’t working either, no signal,” I said and showed him the screen. He took it from my hand and looked closer.

“That’s not possible, it’s just not fucking possible, in this city? Fuck that.”

“You try calling someone then, it doesn’t work.” I said, “I wasn’t wrong, this isn’t normal. A plane crash like that shouldn’t take out every cell tower or available way to contact someone via a smartphone.”

“Then you’re going to have to burn my back.”

“Billy,”

“Do you want me to die?”

“Maybe if we…”

“Make a choice Lisa. I’m asking you to do this, it’s us together right now. No one else.” He said seriously throwing the phone down on the bed. I growled under my breath and shook my head.

“Alright I just…I’ll need something metal I can’t just hold a lighter there and hope for the best,” I said.

“How do you even know all of this shit?”

“I read a lot of stuff so I can write my characters accurately,” I said and started to look around the room for anything metal that could possibly be heated up. Finally, my eyes landed on a discarded room service tray. The knife on there had not been used. I grabbed it and looked at it. It was all metal. That meant the handle would heat up too hot to hold. Alright, i could wrap the pillow case around it. That might help. “Lay on your stomach.”

“What the hell are you writing that you need to know any of this?”

“Lay on your stomach.” I repeated, “If you survive I’ll tell you.” He chuckled as if that was the easiest bet he could have ever made and laid down so I could get to his back. I found the pillow case from before and wrapped the handle of the knife in it. I grabbed his lighter from the bed and started to heat up the flat edge of the blade trying to get it as hot as possible.

“Warn me before you start.”

“Don’t worry I will.” I told him, “Now you need to stay as still as humanly possible, which won’t be easy but I’ll burn you more if you thrash around. Deep breath, grab onto something.”

“Like what?”

“Anything where I can still see your hands so I know you aren’t going to try to grab me.” I said.

“I would never…”

“Look, I know you think that and you have good intentions, and I don’t think you’d ever hurt me on purpose but this is really going to suck and instinctually you might try to hit me away from you.” I replied, “It’s fine, no one is upset about this and if it happens it happens just try not to. Alright, I’m going to count down from three, I may have to do this more than once. Ready?”

“Mostly.”

“Alright,” I whispered, “Three…two…”

His hands moved in front of him where I could see him grip the sheets, he took in a deep breath as well. I didn’t say the word 'one’ because I was terrified it would alert him to the fact I was about to start which would give him time to flinch away or stop me. I clenched my jaw and held my breath as I pressed the hot metal into his flesh over the cut. Some how he didn’t scream but I could hear the start of one. His hands clenched at the blankets under him hard.

“Sorry sorry almost done,” I whispered. I’d read a lot about this and written stories about it, but it was honestly more disgusting than I could have ever imagined. Especially the smell. I wanted to do it quickly but I wanted to do it right if there was even a right way to do it. I flipped the knife to the other side and finished sealing the cut. This time he did scream and it was a very inhuman animal like screech. I cringed but held the metal in place until I was sure that it had done its job. Sealed the wound it needed to seal and was able to pull it back. There was still a bit of bleeding there but not nearly as much as before.

I slid back from my spot on the bed, listening to him mutter incoherently. I wasn’t sure if he was even fully conscious after something like that. This was only good because a moment later I ran into the bathroom to vomit. I had never in my life dreamed that would be something I’d need to attempt, and especially not on someone like him. Not only that but the smell was putrid. He wouldn’t die, for now, but if that got infected and we couldn’t get help, it was going to take him downhill and quickly. Once I had finished puking up everything I’d eaten for lunch, I stumbled to the sink and rinsed my mouth. Water first, then mouthwash provided by the hotel. I rinsed until I couldn’t taste anything gross anymore and stumbled back into the room, collapsing on the bed next to him and trying to steady my breathing.

We were both still alive and relatively unharmed. It would take a day or two for that to get badly infected and I was sure we could figure something out within that time. Power could come back on, someone might come looking for survivors. Anything could change. It wouldn’t be that long before we were found, right? God, I hoped so. After a few moments, I felt a hand on mine. A very weak but rough hand, then there was a squeeze. I lifted my head and turned it to look in his direction.

“Thank you.” He muttered, “I know that couldn’t have been easy.” I smiled softly and nodded my head.

“I have a feeling that’s probably the easiest of things I’m going to have to do in the next few days and I’m scared of what’s to come,” I whispered.

“Nothing to fear…but fear itself.” He muttered but then he was out. I moved to curl up next to him and try to get rest as well. Help would come, it had to, I wasn’t going to die in there not this way, and I certainly wouldn’t allow anything to happen to him either.


	6. Chapter 6

I woke up because it was quiet. It had finally gotten quiet enough that it had become startling. My eyes opened and I turned to look over at the windows. I shivered. It was freezing in there. I pulled the blanket as much over Billy as I could before walking to the window and looking outside. Considering the city was still on a black out I could see basically nothing and could hear less than that. Fuck. I looked over at Billy, who was still out. Not wanting to bother him because he definitely needed rest, I grabbed a pack of cookies from the floor and opened them. I had to eat something or I'd trigger my heart condition and that wouldn't be good for anyone.

I would need to find help for him. It was quiet enough outside that it was apparent the chaos had died down but it was also setting off every red flag that currently existed in my mind. As I chewed on one of the cookies I silently slid the dresser away from the door and opened it. I doubled back and grabbed my phone first, turning on the flashlight app so I could see. This wouldn't work forever but the battery was nearly fully charged so if I used it sparingly I'd be okay until morning. I could probably use it to find an actual flashlight somewhere anyway.

There wasn't anything I could use as a weapon here, not really. At least, that's what I thought until I spotted a cane in the corner. It had to have been his, but I hadn't seen him using it. Not that it really mattered, in a pinch, it would work as a weapon and was all I was going to have to venture out. I found some paper and a pen on a table in there and scribbled a note saying that I would be back, before returning to Billy and putting it under his head. He didn't wake up. I wasn't sure why I was surprised by that but I was. After looking at him for another moment I walked out again, the cane clutched in my hand.

I stepped into the hallway and made sure the door wasn't going to somehow lock on me if I went exploring. I didn't need the flashlight on my phone any longer. There were emergency lights on out here. Very dim but they worked. I slipped my phone into my pocket and started down the hall. Almost immediately I saw a door which had been completely broken open. As if someone had kicked it down. Taking a deep breath and raising the cane like a bat I inched my way towards it, poking my head in. I stayed quiet. My horror movie brain explained to me that speaking would definitely call attention to me and that was the last thing I wanted. Since the door was busted there was more than enough light seeping into that area of the room that I couldn't see anyone. Couldn't hear anyone either.

I slipped inside and glanced around. There was a suitcase on the floor. It had been ransacked as if someone was grabbing something out of it in a hurry, but left there otherwise. I dumped the rest of it out and sifted through it. Some of the clothing looked like it could fit me and I'd need more than just a bikini top and hoodie in this environment. Since this was another suite, there were supplies left. A lot of them. I started to pack them up quickly.

On the counter, behind the bar, I found a switchblade. If these people were coming back I would have to act very quickly. I slipped the knife into my pocket and headed for the safe in the room. Since the power was off, the safe had powered off and the door happened to be open. Inside I found a pistol and a box half full of ammo. This was too good to be true. They had left in a hurry but not with their gun? Though the box of ammo was only half full and the clip was empty. Chances were they had another gun with more ammo and took that one. Whatever, this was still good news. I packed it into the suitcase, I could load it later.

From there, I went into the bathroom and looked around. Drugs. A lot of them. Not just legal ones either. I wondered suddenly who had been staying here. Then again it was a high roller suite and Vegas. How surprised could I have been to find drugs and a gun? The only thing that wasn't there was massive piles of money or casino chips. The person or people in there had probably taken those, which was stupid seeing as how I couldn't fathom what money would even be worth in an apocalypse scenario, as this clearly was.

Thinking that the drugs might be worth trade value at some point I packed those up. Some of it was obviously coke. There were pill bottles with different opioids and then, miraculously antibiotics. The problem was that there wasn't even half a dose left. Four pills. It was something but it wasn't going to cure Billy. He was going to need a full course of them. Crap. I packed them anyway and zipped up the bag to turn around and head out of there. As I was stepping into the hall I heard movement, then noticed it out of the corner of my eye.

"HEY!" It was a male's voice and it wasn't Billy's. I turned to look around the corner then froze. "That your room?"

"Yeah." I replied naturally, "Look my...boyfriend is here too he needs help. He's just down the hall." The man approached me quicker I could see he was holding an ax and covered in blood. Probably not his blood considering a lot of it was on the ax as well. He looked me over.

"Boyfriend? Sweet young thing like you?" He asked.

"Yeah, boyfriend." I repeated, "Now, can you help us or not?"

"I can help you." He grinned, leaning into me far too uncomfortably. My hand went to the pocket where the knife was.

"Help her do what? Find your cock?" It was Billy speaking now, and he was standing in the doorway to his room. He had a shirt on, mostly. It was on but not buttoned. He was coming towards me and the man with the ax, except he was completely unarmed. "I can tell you three things to do with it myself and it starts with shoving it up your own arse."

"Billy,"

"Oh, what are you going to do about it old man?" The man countered. Just as Billy reached me, my arm was grabbed and I was pulled towards the asshole. I felt a hand on my lower back brushing against me as Billy possibly attempted to grab me. I honestly wasn't sure what he was doing until I was able to turn and see what he had done was grab the switchblade. He popped the blade to it and held it up enough that it could be seen in the dim hallway lighting.

"Look, no one here has to get hurt," I spoke calmly, trying to de-escalate the situation which was normally unlike me but this wasn't a normal situation. Had it been I would have probably been urging Billy to kick this guy's ass. It was clear that the normal rules did not apply here and whoever this was, didn't care about killing anyone.

"You're gonna get hurt if you don't leave here with me, so I suggest you play along." He purred in my ear. I growled and tried to jerk back from him but he pulled me closer. Billy took a step forward. "Stay back, old man."

"The name is Billy."

"And I'm supposed to give a shit?"

"Okay, stop it, what is going on outside that we will get hurt if we don't have you?" I asked the douchebag on my arm.

"Zombies." He whispered, "A whole fuck ton of them."

"Give me a fucking break." Billy snapped moving in even closer, "You think we are dumb enough to buy that shit?"

"Buy it or not, it's the truth and you two are..." He paused and I felt his grip on my arm loosen considerably. I pulled back and stumbled towards Billy, still holding the bag I had packed tightly in my arm. "He's been bitten...is this a trick?"

"What?" Both me and Billy asked at the same time because that just sounded absolutely ridiculous to both of us.

"Help you said your boyfriend needed help because he's fucking bitten! Look at his fucking neck!" The guy snapped pointing at Billy's neck. I turned and looked for a moment. The bite mark I had made on his neck was left there from the previous night. This really was stupid, kind of. The man's fearful reaction was genuine, the type one would have if zombies were actually roaming around outside. He wasn't lying, or at least he truly believed what he had just said before.

"No, I bit him. You know, something called sex. What you don't usually get consensually." I told him.

"YOU'RE INFECTED! YOU'RE BOTH INFECTED!" He yelled.

"Oh for Christ's sake." Billy sighed. The man raised his ax above his head and it was coming towards me first. I screamed and stupidly did nothing as I braced for impact. One which never came. Instead, I heard a choked gasping sound and a thud. Then felt a hand on my arm. I opened my eyes again and looked around. It was Billy and the man was on the ground, the knife in his throat.

"Woah..." I breathed. This in no way should have turned me on and it mostly didn't, but it also kind of did. Not the death and murder part, just the part where he'd thrown a knife like that to protect me. God, I really needed to eat more food, I was going insane.

"Lisa," He said softly, "Let's just go back to the room and figure this out ourselves. I don't think he's lying."

"I don't think he is either," I whispered and took his suggestion to head back into the room.

"You shouldn't have done that." He said as followed me into the room, shutting the door behind me. From there, he started to barricade the door himself. "Did you really think that-"

"You need help." I cut him off, "I was desperate and I thought maybe I could find help. It didn't work. Sorry." I tossed the bag down in the center of the room and then went to get a bottle of vodka from the bar. I opened it and took in two gulps. I was trying to forget what had just happened in the hall, one of those things being that Billy had killed a man. It was in self-defense but it was still something I had never wanted to see. I was appreciative and terrified all at once. Not terrified of him, not in the least, but the idea that whatever had happened outside (and what was still happening) had caused the two of us to come to that.

"What's in the bag?" He asked walking over to it.

"NO WAIT!" I came towards him quickly but he'd already unzipped it and of course, the first thing he'd put his hand on was the brick of cocaine I'd found. Alright, more like half of a brick.

"Coke."

"I don't do coke. Whoever was in that room did, and was probably a dealer. Look at all those pills. There's no reason for them to have had all of that, plus a gun if they weren't dealing." I said, "Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much do I need to hide all of this from you."

"Don't be a bitch about this."

"Billy,"

"Wasn't it you who said if this was your last night on earth you'd do a bunch of drugs?" He pointed out.

"I don't intend for this to be my last night and even if I did, coke isn't a drug I'd do. I said heroin." I explained. He grabbed one of the random pill bottles and tossed it at me. I caught it quickly and looked down. Percocet. "You aren't doing coke and I-"

"You don't have nearly the type of problem I have, or had, possibly still do."

"I still had one," I said.

"Was it as bad as you think mine was?" He asked, "Be honest."

"No." I shook my head, "I don't see how this is relevant to anything that-"

"Take one."

"Really? Why the hell for?"

"Your arm." He said. The hand he had on the coke retracted and he grabbed one of the chocolate bars I had brought back instead. To be fair, I could see exactly why he was tempted. This may not have been our last night on earth, or it probably wouldn't become that, but he had a point. Why not get a little crazy, considering the situation at least. I was kind of surprised at his self-control. As much as I was talking a big game I wanted nothing more than to take three or four of these pills and ride a nice calming buzz until morning. My problem had only lasted for about two years and I had pulled myself out of it once I saw myself hit rock-bottom. As much as it was an addiction and it had been bad, I couldn't ever compare it to what he'd most likely been through and for how long.

"I can't," I said. "We have pot, don't we?"

"I have pot. It's mine." He grinned cheekily.

"Really? Can't share a joint with the woman who pulled glass out of your back and then cauterized your skin to save your life?" I asked him. Still holding the pills I joined him on the couch. I set them down on the coffee table and the bottle of vodka right next to it.

"Which would you rather have?"

"Are you honestly trying to push drugs on an addict right now?"

"I'm asking you to do them so I can...live through you vicariously." He said. Right, that made sense. I also should have picked up on that. I didn't think he was very happy about asking me. He didn't seem it. I knew that he knew what this had to be like, times 100. He wasn't wrong about it either. If I took three or four of these things I would not relapse. I knew that because on occasion at home I did that anyway and I had still yet to fall back into my addiction. It was a slippery slope but I managed. As for him, it didn't seem he could do anything just once and not go off the deepend. We were both addicts but to very different levels. It also basically was the end of the world.

"And you won't touch the coke or any of the other pills if I do?" I asked him. "You promise."

"Swear." He said.

"Because I'll be very high and eventually I will pass out and I won't be able to babysit you. No one will." I told him.

"Won't need it." He said very confidently. It could have been a lie that over confidence brought on but I was willing to risk it. At very least I believed that he would do what he could in his best power not to break his promise.

"Alright but I need food or I'm going to get very sick." I told him. "I mean I will probably feel nauseated anyway but it'll be more tolerable with food. I know it's the end of the world and all, or it seems like it, but until we know how hopeless it is...just please don't start doing drugs right now."

I got up and grabbed a few bags of chips from the suitcase and opened one of them. I started to eat them and then took one of the pills with a swig of vodka before continuing to eat.

"As much as it's tempting, I think I know better than to do it, more than you seem to have faith in me." He said.

"I have plenty of faith in you but I also know how this works." I pointed out. Once I finished that first bag of chips I took another pill with more vodka. I opened a second bag of chips and started to eat those too. I really should have been taking these pills with water but I was too lazy, hungry, and stressed out to find water at the moment. He got up and left the room, heading into the bedroom. I rolled my eyes and opened a bag of mini-chocolate chip cookies and started to chow down on those. As I was about to take the next pill, the bottle of vodka was pulled out of my hand and replaced with a bottle of water. I looked up at him. "Thank you."

"No problem." He said and sat down next to me where he lit up a joint. I ate a few more cookies then took the third pill.

"There, three is the charm," I told him. "Look at how skinny I am. Just give it about thirty minutes or so."

"Certainly." He said. I sighed and started to drink a bunch of water in between finishing off the cookies. I knew what this stuff did to me and quite frankly I was looking forward to it. The panic was creeping up on me, or at least it had been. Just swallowing the pills made it easier to breathe and think. It was the initial placebo effect of knowing they would kick in soon enough and my brain would be wrapped in a warm, soft cloud of happiness. Too bad there would be absolutely no way to keep it lasting after tonight.


	7. Chapter 7

When I started to get a bit nauseated and itchy I knew that the stuff was starting to kick in. I smiled and laid back on the couch, closing my eyes. This feeling was always nice. The initial reason I'd gotten addicted to opioids was because of how stressed I easily got about everything. I was neurotic, that was for sure, and this came with a complete diagnosis of OCD. I found that nothing took away the anxiety better than narcotics. The entire world could come crashing down around me and I would be like 'whatever'. Much as I was in that moment.

"Kicking in?" He asked.

"Oh yeah." I muttered and opened my eyes slowly to look at him. He seemed overly interested in this which made me laugh. "You know how it feels right? I'm sure you remember." I shifted so that my head was now resting on his thigh instead of on the arm of the couch under me. He put a hand on top of my head and started to stroke my hair softly.

"Remember, yes. Not the same as experiencing it." He sighed. "Not as powerful as heroin either."

"Never did heroin, so I can't comment."

"I can, but that is neither here nor there." He replied but he seemed far more relaxed too. I was very tempted to bring up the fact that he had just killed a guy in the hall to defend me but I wasn't sure how well that would go. He wasn't talking about it and though my brain liked to over analyze everything to the nth degree I wasn't sure he was like that. Or maybe he was. It was hard to tell or think about in the moment. He'd seemed pretty relaxed this entire time. As if the end of the world was something he'd either been through before or had literally been facing every day. I supposed if someone were to live as much of a life as he had, and done as much as he had, it would be easier not to panic when there was literal shit going on around you.

I sighed and closed my eyes, letting myself zone out for the moment. This wasn't exactly sleeping. Though I could potentially fall asleep in this state, I much preferred to drift off into my own mind and let my thoughts flow. It was what I did any time I rested, drugged up or not. Due to the fact that I was a writer, as in a wrote things but wasn't paid to, whenever I rested or had time to do it, I would brainstorm. It wasn't exactly something I should be doing in the moment given the situation but it had always been something that relaxed me. To go to a different place in my mind and think about my characters or new stories for them to play out. At least in those moments I didn't have to also be myself. That's probably what made it so relaxing and after taking pills like that, everything was far more vivid and greatly enhanced.

"It wasn't supposed to kill him." He spoke suddenly and enough that it caused me to jump and gasp, not at all expecting any sound to happen in that moment. My eyes opened and I quickly turned to look up at him.

"Huh?"

"When I threw the knife." He said, "I did mean to hit him just not in the throat."

"He was going to decapitate me." I muttered, "I mean there's zombies out there or he believes there is enough that he was going to murder us and I mean...I wasn't doing anything I was useless there I just froze. Like an idiot. I'm not like one of my characters I mean I want to be but I'm not. You actually did something."

"I meant to stop him not-"

"You stopped him, Billy, you saved my life." I said, "Now that you've done that you don't owe me anything any more for saving yours. We're even."

"You're not going to just leave now are you?"

"What?"

"Because we are equal..."

"It was a joke." I said slowly then realized he was actually concerned about this. Maybe it was more of a joke in my own mind or something. I really hadn't phrased it as a joke, though I guess it wasn't a joke more as much as it had been mindless word vomit. A random train of thought. "Sorry it was just thinking out loud it was not meant to...Billy I'm not leaving you here and I hope to fuck you aren't intent on leaving me here. We'll get out together, find help together. This can't be the entire state of the world now just one area, okay? When it's morning we will...it'll be better in the morning."

"What the hell makes you think that?"

"Nothing, really, but if I don't tell myself that I'm going to finish that bottle of pills right now." I muttered and rubbed my eyes, "Let's not focus on it until we have to."

"Everyone's probably dead you know, or undead."

"Stop it." I whispered. "You don't know that, we don't know that, the phones don't even work." It was surprising to me that I was even attempting to be positive because normally I wasn't. There wasn't any end of the world scenario I could have thought about before where I'd have stayed positive but here I was trying to convince him that everything would sort itself out. What I did know was that it would be pointless and very dangerous to just head out in the pitch black of night where there were allegedly zombies roaming around and if there wasn't that, there'd definitely be blind panic and idiot perverts like the axe wielding douche we'd just met in the hall.

"Fine, then tell me one of your...stories."

"You don't need that type of torture after what you'd already been through." I laughed softly.

"Humor me."

"Alright," I said. "The story is too complicated for my brain to...brain right now. I'll tell you about Leila. She's a character that I write. She's an heiress and her parents own this massive technology company in Japan. They were like you know...comparable to like Microsoft and whatever but decided ultimately not to compete with the home computer market and went into medical science and technology developing surgical equipment and such...whatever. They became billionaires and then died leaving her a fortune. The whole story is based on demons and the seven deadly sins, has a lot to do with reincarnation and blah blah blah there's a ghost girl named Rika-"

"Ghost girl? Like one of those freaky chicks from that Ring movie?"

"There's only one freaky chick in that movie."

"You get my point."

"No, she's not like that. She's friendly, like she comes to Leila and warns her about demons and other crap but she can't...she speaks in riddles mostly. Can't be direct or the demons will hear her. Like I said it's complicated. Do we have to talk about this right now?" I asked. "I'm not even sure I can remember it all correctly with the pills I took."

"What does she look like then?"

"Rika?"

"Leila."

"Oh uh...like Krista Allen." I muttered then yawned and curled up. It was getting pretty cold in there due to the city being set in the middle of the desert and us being on the 35th floor. I shivered but I was in a state where I couldn't move. Too tired. I knew I'd feel better if I got up and grabbed a blanket or something but I couldn't find the energy. Instead I opted to just lay there and let myself zone out. Or attempt to. It didn't work too well.

"Who?"

"Really hot chick. Big tits, like perfect tits, I mean if there was a tit competition she'd win all of them. Nice ass. Waist long brown hair and bright green eyes. Soothing, sultry voice." I described. "Rika is like I dunno really short, tiny even, but fierce. Kind of shortish black hair and brown eyes...died when the demons got her."

"Do they ever fuck?"

"What?! NO!" I yelled.

"That kind of sounds like a yes." He chuckled.

"Fine okay not in like the story story but...in side stories I write sometimes. It's not important." I whined and curled up more. "Cold."

"Alright alright that's enough." He said and pulled me into his arms. He stood up and started to walk into the bedroom. I would have been surprised he could carry me if I wasn't barely 100 pounds. I was a stick compared to him. I was laid down on the bed and he got in next to me, pulling the blankets around both of us before bringing me in close to him. It was nice because now I was starting to warm up thanks to his body heat so close to me.

"Thanks." I whispered.

"I want to hear more about this side story stuff."

"Maybe in the morning, and when you aren't sober," I snickered, "Because once you hear what I intend to explain there is no going back."

"After all that has happened in the past few hours I think I can take it." He whispered. I smiled and closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth and closeness for the moment. It wasn't going to be like this forever but for the time being, it was enough.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up the next morning because I was way too incredibly hot. Overheating. This wasn't abnormal for me to do even when sleeping alone, not that I knew why, but this time it was worse than that. I sat up quickly, pushing the blankets off of me, trying to cool off. I felt like ass and I certainly looked like it. I could see my reflection in the mirror on the dresser across from the bed. It took me a moment to realize what had happened, where I was, and that none of it had been a dream. Slowly my head turned and I saw Billy there. This was some weird cross between a beautiful dream and a nightmare that wouldn't end. Sure Billy Idol was there but it was also a real goddamn zombie apocalypse. How did this even happen?

I leaned in, he was still breathing but he was sweating, badly. I didn't think it was from the heat that was pouring in from outside and the open windows either. He had a fever and it was probably from the wound on his back. I put my hand to his forehead. I wasn't wrong. Shit. He groaned and slapped my arm away before rolling over. I got up, my head pounding, and went to find a bottle of water. I drank down half of it in one breath and walked to the bathroom. Amazingly there was still enough water pressure for things to work, including the toilet and shower. It very well could have been that the hotel was on an independent system and had backup generators that were pumping and heating things. It wouldn't last forever, maybe another 24 hours but that was it.

I started the water and stripped down, getting in. It felt nice, especially since I had been soaked in sweat upon waking up. Not all of it my own. I didn't know what we were going to do now. If he had a fever then there wasn't a chance of a quick escape without some type of transportation. A car would probably be useless considering the state of affairs outside but a motorcycle...huh. I didn't know how to work anything like that, but he would. Could he do it in a fevered state of mine? Well, to be fair he'd probably done it many times wasted off his ass and been fine. The problem would be finding one, getting to it safely, and convincing him to do it.

Once I was done getting cleaned I turned the water off and pushed the shower curtain back to get out. Billy was in the bathroom. I hadn't heard him come in so of course, my reaction was to scream loudly. This made him jump back and then laugh, he looked over at me as I scrambled to get a towel.

"It's just us here, love. Don't need to be shy now." He teased. My heart still pounding from the stupid ability he had to sneak up on me in the bathroom, I glared at him. He leaned over the sink and started to run the water to splash some on his face. I walked over there and grabbed the mouthwash since I still didn't have a toothbrush to use. I'd have to steal one at some point.

"Fine, I'll walk around naked when you-" I really didn't even get a chance to finish that sentence because he was very quick at getting out of his clothes. I laughed and got a mouthful of the Listerine I was holding and started to rinse my mouth. A deal was a deal so I let the towel drop. He smiled and looked me over before heading for the shower and I couldn't help but watch his ass as he did. It was still a very nice ass. I spit the mouthwash out in the sink and ran some water. 

"This really doesn't bother me, you know. I was a stripper for a few years. Long time ago when I was a lot younger." I said.

"Were you?" He asked as he started the shower.

"Yes." I smiled, "Made a lot of money at it too. Went from that into the dominatrix stuff and my life just got less exciting from that point." I poked around the bathroom for a bit before I found a comb so I could run it through my hair.

"That's a pity." He said not even trying to hide himself from me in the shower. This was crossing wires in my brain, the voyeurist in me was very pleased by this moment, as well as the exhibitionist but this was also no time to be thinking about sex. None. Absolutely not.

"It really is." I said, "But I mean the past day or so has been pretty fun, so maybe I spoke too soon. You have a fever."

"Do not." He replied.

"Yes, you do," I told him. "I need to go find clothes, find you ibuprofen, then we need to eat what we can and head out of here. A motorcycle will be our best option for those roads out there." To be fair, I hadn't even bothered to look outside yet, scared of what I might see, but it was Vegas and the world had basically just ended, obviously, there were going to be cars packed for miles. It was a no brainer.

"You are very bossy."

"That may be, but it'll end up saving our asses," I told him and walked out of the bathroom. I went to the suitcase that I had brought in there the night before with the clothes that I figured would probably fit me. I wasn't wrong. There was a dress that fit fairly well so I pulled that on. I went through the rest of the stuff and found some sunscreen. The bottle was only half full but it might just have to do. There was no telling if we'd be able to loot any of it. We'd been up here so long that there was a good chance that when we did make it to the casino it was all looted. The only good news in this was that we had been so high up when all of this crap happened there seemed to be very few people willing to venture up that many flights to look for anything or anyone. Going down the stairs was probably another story and explained why everything was so empty now.

"No time for sex then?" I turned to look at him standing in the doorway, still naked. I so badly wanted to say yes to this but shook my head, almost imperceptibly. I was thinking about yelling at him for even thinking that in the moment but I was too so it would have been very hypocritical of me. I leaned down and picked up the bottle which contained the four capsules of penicillin.

"Take one of these and I'll give you a very distracted hand job," I told him, tossing the bottle in his direction. He caught it and looked at the label. "You're not allergic right?"

"No, but you aren't a doctor."

"Yeah, that's true, but I damn well know penicillin is for infections and that's why you have a fever." I said, "It certainly won't hurt."

"Blow job."

"What?"

"I take one for a blow job." He grinned cheekily.

"Here's the problem with that," I said, "I've never given anyone a blow job. I'm not opposed to trying but, I've never done it. It'll probably like the worst blow job you've ever had. I'd be far better with my hands."

"Oh now you've just tempted me more, I've had some pretty terrible blow jobs." He laughed and shook the bottle of pills in my direction. "We have a deal, or not?"

"Fine, FINE! But then I was you to return the favor."

"No, you have to earn that. I'm already doing my part by taking one of these pills." He said and walked back into the bedroom. He had a point but that didn't mean I wasn't still upset about it. I figured he probably was very good at oral sex, someone with that mouth couldn't have possibly been bad at it. With an annoyed growl, I grabbed two of the pre-wrapped muffins from the suitcase and headed into the bedroom. He was waiting on the bed. He showed me the pill and took it with one of the bottles of water we had stashed in there. I threw a muffin at him, it hit him on the side of the head, and though it had not been my intent I still couldn't help but laugh.

"Sorry."

"I'm sure that was hilarious." He said, not sounding genuinely upset but he didn't seem too happy about it either.

"Oh calm down." I said, "You need to eat, I haven't seen you eat anything in like a day."

"Doesn't mean I haven't."

"I don't think you have. I think you are letting me have the food thinking that we'll run out or whatever. It won't do for one of us to go hungry. Eat that, your stomach will probably get upset otherwise. Once that's over I'll start with the blowjob."

"Well, that's two things you know."

"Billy,"

"Don't get your panties in a bunch I'm teasing." He said opening the package and taking the muffin out. I snickered and sat down on the bed, taking mine out to eat it as well.

"I'll need to find you ibuprofen too, lower your fever."

"That can come later...after I do."

"Ha ha," I said. This was going to be awkward because not only was I telling the truth about never doing it before, the very last person I wanted to practice on was Billy Idol. The man who probably had 8000 blowjobs in his life and 1000 better than I could do. If not more.

"How is it someone your age in your line of work never-"

"I told you, I'm usually the dominant." I interrupted him. "All the men I was ever with weren't even interested in that. Never asked. I was never opposed to the idea just never super into it either. Guess the stars didn't align correctly for it to happen."

"What did you do with these guys then?"

"You don't want to know."

"Do you not know who I am? Are you aware saying that just makes me want to know more?"

"Okay, but I warned you." I said and took another bite of my food, "Cock and ball torture mostly."

"R-Really?" He sounded more intrigued by that than I thought he would. I couldn't say it sounded like he was into it, or really wanted to try it, but usually, those two words plus the third one made guys cringe. Usually. Of course, I'd met plenty of men who just became more interested in it, whether they wanted to try it or not. "I thought this was just, you know, a job."

"Job and relationships." I shrugged, "Whatever, my boyfriends certainly didn't care. Probably because I was the dominant."

"What else?"

"Uh..." I looked away from him and took another bite of my muffin, "Look that's not important. Just...lots of fetish stuff."

"What kind of fetish stuff?"

"Finish your damn muffin." I snapped.

"Yes, mistress." He responded in a much deeper and far more throaty voice than he needed to. I playfully punched him in the arm and finished up my food. There was no way I was going to get deeper into this and what I had done. I had worked in edge play. That's all I had done. The type of bondage that was on the edge of what was considered safe and sane. I wasn't sure, just now, if I was ready for him to hear the very bizarre stuff I'd gotten into like pet play, medical fetish, and the electro-torture. Though I was sure he wasn't alien to the idea of strap-ons and pegging I didn't want to have to say that either. If I had to make a guess I knew he couldn't have been straight vanilla or unaware these things existed but I couldn't play all my cards at once.

"I know you think that's helping but-"

"I don't think it's helping."

"Jackass," I muttered but couldn't help but smile anyway. I finished up my food and moved towards him, shoving him back on the bed, by that point he was mostly finished anyway. I ran a hand over his chest, down his abdomen, and to his cock starting to stroke it firmly. He let out a soft groan. "You're sure this is what you want."

"Oh, I'm quite sure, love."

"Fine but when it's awful, and it will be awful, you can't complain."

"I already told you I've had some very bad blowjobs before."

"Not like this one will be."

"I'd beg to differ. Go on then." He snapped his fingers. I narrowed my gaze at him and huffed in annoyance before slipping down more so I actually could start. I glanced up at him for a moment but he was looking at me far to expectantly. This had been a very bad idea and yet here I was too stubborn to say no to this. If anything it would prove me right and then he could shut up about it for the rest of his life. We really needed to get moving anyway so it was best to just get it over with.

I leaned in more and opened my mouth, taking just the tip of him in as my hand worked the rest of the shaft because there was no way in hell I was going to get most of that cock in my mouth. I had a sensitive gag reflex anyway and with years of 0 practice on this technique, I had almost no way to suppress it. I started to work my mouth, lips, and tongue, in a manner that I assumed would be pleasing. Everything here was educated guess work. I had written plenty of erotica plenty of times with girls who knew exactly what they were doing. I could at least attempt to mimic it. I'd been told by a lot of guys that I was very good at accurately writing blow jobs, which confused the shit out of them when I told them I'd never actually blown anyone. Maybe I was on to something with that.

I heard his breathing increase and he moaned again, one of his hands came to rest on the top of my head. I could feel him tense and I could also feel the urge he had to try to push me down. I couldn't blame him for wanting to, really, I imagined that probably was awesome for a guy especially since that's how I wrote it in my stories. The problem was, I did not have one clue how to do that and I was the type to start biting if I also started choking. Luckily, he didn't push my head down, just kind of gripped my hair and so after a pause to see what he was going to do, I was able to continue.

As I used my mouth I kept working my hand to the best of my ability. In between glances at him and then back down to what I was doing. He wasn't saying anything but he didn't seem to be hating it either. I breathed in through my nose and was able to take a bit more in momentarily before having to pull back. As I did, he gripped my hair, I growled softly trying to warn him about that, but he must have felt the vibrations through my mouth and he moaned even louder that time, his grip becoming looser. I went back to what I was doing, speeding up a bit, taking more in when I could and pulling back when I couldn't stand it much longer.

"Fuck...close..." He warned me I looked up and pulled back just as he orgasmed. He wasn't lying he had been close and I would have been rightfully pissed had he cum in my mouth. Only for the sole reason that I really didn't like the taste of cum. I may not have ever blown a guy but I had tasted it out of curiosity. It really wasn't anything personal to him and I was sure, with time, I could get used to it. We didn't have the time. I gasped, as the first few spurts of it got on me, he was still trying to hold me down so luckily it got on my neck and not the dress I just put on. Finally, I was able to pry his hand from my hair and get completely back, my hand continuing to stroke him until he was completely finished.

"See...wasn't good."

"Mmmm...had worse." He muttered.

"Oh, bullshit." I laughed.

"Seriously, when girls get really wasted and try to do that, they tend to lose track of where their teeth are." He grinned, "So...no it was not the best but, yes I've had worse." I laughed. He did have a point. I shook my head and got off of the bed to walk into the bathroom so I could wash my hands. Just as I was finishing up I heard him come in there I turned to look at him and he pulled me into a kiss. I returned it for a moment before pulling back.

"Thanks for not jizzing in my mouth because then I would have bit you," I told him.

"Still wouldn't have been the worst blow job." He teased me. I giggled and grabbed a towel, shoving it into his hands.

"Get cleaned up, find something to wear, and then...we need to prepare some type of battle plan to get the hell out of Las Vegas," I said. The smile on his face never left as I stepped out of the bathroom. Alright, so far so good, this day could have started a lot worse than it had and my spirits were picking up. Just a bit. 


	9. Chapter 9

I walked over to the windows as I exited the bathroom and this was the first time I dared to look outside. There were people, a ton of them, they were definitely not alive either. Had they been, there would have been far more screaming. Like there had been not two days before. They were walking, moving, but they were dead. That weird guy who had tried to decapitate me hadn’t been lying. There were fucking zombies outside. Feeling sick, I stepped back from the window and took in a deep breath. Walking to the dresser in there I started to quickly pull clothes out. I tossed some black jeans and a T-shirt onto the bed. I figured he was going to try to drag this out more but I wanted to get out of there and I wanted to do it quickly.

“Lisa-”

“We have to go. This is a big hotel, it has its own parking garage so we should be able to find something to-”

“Where are we going to get the keys?”

“I don’t know.” I said, “Get dressed.”

“Shouldn’t we have a better plan than that?”

“We should, but unfortunately there’s no time,” I told him. Walking back out into the living room area I went to the suitcase I had packed of the stolen goods and started to jam stuff into it. It was then that I noticed a floral silk scarf hanging out from one of the pockets. I pulled it out quickly and headed back into the bedroom. Thankfully he was dressed and had actually listened. I shoved him onto the bed so he was sitting down.

“Look, if you want to tie me up with that-”

“Shut up,” I said and started to wrap it around his neck, the intent was to cover the bite mark. Though it didn’t look infected or diseased and was healing fine on its own, I couldn’t risk someone else seeing it and reacting the way that man had.

“This doesn’t really match you know.”

“Does it matter?” I asked him, “We need to keep that bite mark covered and a bandage would be too obvious. Besides, you’re Billy Idol, you dress weird.”

“I do not.”

“Well, not to me but other people will just accept it because you’re Billy Idol,” I told him.

“You may have a point there.”

“Yeah, so pack up some stuff, useful stuff. Not more than one small bag.” I said and walked back to the other room. The drugs were still in the bag, nice and packed. I included a few bottles of water and a few bottles of alcohol. The only thing left at that point was to load the gun, which I did. I was only going to have enough ammo for one full clip and then half of another one. It was fine. People who weren’t dead were easily intimidated by guns. Usually. The zombies would be a different story. I heard him enter the room behind me a moment later, he was humming something softly. It sounded familiar, kind of. He was only half humming it so I couldn’t figure out what it was. I also didn’t think it was one of his songs.

“Ready?” I asked before tucking the gun into the belt around my waist that my dress had.

“You know how to use that?”

“Aim it at whatever you want to die and pull the trigger. I have a gun at home.” I said, “I mean I’m no expert but I know enough to load a clip, disarm a gun, fire one…all that stuff.”

“Sexy.”

“Maybe right now it is, but it probably won’t be when I actually have to use it.”

“If.”

“No, there are zombies outside. It’s really only a matter of time.” I explained, “We need to get you a weapon.”

“Why? Can’t I just borrow the gun if I need it?”

“Yes, but it’s probably better to have something like that axe from outside. Melee weapon.” I said and he gave me a look, “I play a lot of zombie video games.”

“Then you should be an expert.”

“I somehow think real life is going to be vastly different. No save points, no first aid kits, you get bit and you’re dead.” I said, “But I will do my best. I’ve also seen every zombie movie known to mankind so maybe that’ll give us a bit of a leg up.” I watched him jam a few things into his bag, one of them being a very good bottle of whiskey and chuckled to myself.

“Is there any sort of plan before we step outside of here?”

“Somehow find a motorcycle and don’t die, I guess,” I said then slung my bag over my shoulder as I headed for the door. I stopped there and paused turning to see him as he was lacing up his boots. “Just try to keep as much of your body covered as possible. We’ll have to find something thicker, like leather. It’ll help prevent bites.”

“I have that.” He said and walked to the closet getting out a leather jacket. I should have predicted this but that really didn’t help me. At least I didn’t think it would until he held it in my direction.

“You take it.”

“You.”

“You’re in worse shape than me, I’m sure we can loot one from somewhere that would fit me better anyway,” I told him. “Please just humor me on this.”

“For now.” He said and pulled it on. I nodded at him and stepped towards the door. It was now or never.

It was only when we reached the fifth-floor using the stairs to go down that I recognized what he was humming. Considering that we had both been relatively quiet until that point I really should have picked up on it sooner. It had been tempting to talk to him but I wanted to keep the noise to a minimum. His humming wasn’t loud, and in an odd way, it was comforting in lieu of actual conversation. That was until I knew the song. I stopped on the fifth-floor landing and looked at him. Luckily the stairwell had been fairly empty. Only ran into a few actually dead bodies, nothing undead.

“What?”

“That song you are humming. Why?” I asked him, stopping for a moment to get out a bottle of water and take a few sips. We may have only been going down stairs and not up but since nothing was air conditioned in this hotel any longer and there was absolutely no breeze in there, it was very hot. We were almost done, though. Once we hit the first floor we’d just have to try to find the parking garage from the casino or lobby area and brave it the best we could.

“Why what? It’s in my head, blame your tattoo.” He said, pointing at my arm. I looked down at it, my brain suddenly glitching and not remembering what was written there.

How many people lie instead of talking tall

“You know what it’s from then?” I asked slowly.

“No shit I do if I’m humming it.” He said, grabbing the water from me and taking a few gulps himself.

“Huh.” I said, “Very few people know it’s a reference to Blackstar just from that one line.”

“Well now, I’m one of them aren’t I? Doesn’t that just make me special?”

“I know you were a fan of his.” She said, “I’ve had the tattoo for so long sometimes I even forget it’s there. Same with all the rest of them.”

“That’s for him too.” He said motioning to the other arm. On that arm, I had the logo from Blackstar which technically spelled out the name Bowie as well as the year of his birth signified by the number 47 and right under that the infinity sign. “Might have to start getting jealous.”

“Why? He’s dead, and he’s not the one I slept with.” I teased taking the water back from him to drink a bit more.

“True.” He smiled, “You must have really liked him to get two tattoos.”

“It’s a long story.” I sighed, “Anyway, we need to get moving and stop humming that damn song.” I capped the bottle and jammed it back into the bag before I started to head down the stairs again. He followed after me.

“Is there a song you’d prefer I hum?”

“Just nothing from that album.” I said, “Maybe something you wrote.”

“Not sure I’m in the mood for that.” He said, “If we survive this, and get somewhere safe, I’ll sing you any fucking song you want.”

“You’re singing me an entire album if we get out of here.” I laughed.

“Which one?”

“Kings and Queens Of The Underground,” I said quickly. It was the only one I wanted to hear him sing anyway. It wasn’t that I hated all of his other songs because I didn’t, it was just that album that meant the most to me for various reasons.

“Deal.” He said, “Wise choice too, might have had to say no to some of the others.”

“You wouldn’t have,” I said grinning at him cheekily. Once we reached the first floor, I saw that the door was practically ripped off of its hinges. There was also a pile of bodies not ten feet from it and the smell was so horrific that I gagged, stepping back quickly and turning away. “Fuck.”

“Fuck is right.” He whispered and stepped up towards the door, sticking his head out and looking around. “Is now the good time to tell you I know how to hotwire a motorcycle?”

“Any time would be a good time.” I said, “Would have been better had you told me while we were upstairs.”

“True but I am going to need wire to be able to do it, which is why I didn’t mention it, I have no fucking clue where I’m going to get the type of wire we actually need.”

“Why do you know how to do this again?”

“I’m Billy Idol.” He said and grinned, as if that was an actual answer, before stepping past the bodies to get more into the casino. I whined softly, not at all wanting to go after him in this moment but knowing I would have to. Once I got out there I stepped up behind him quickly trying to use his body to shield mine.

“That’s not an answer,” I whispered to him once I got close enough.

“It is for now.” He whispered back and looked around. He raised up the axe that we’d picked up from the floor as we had been leaving the room and looked around. I did as well, but the casino did seem pretty dead (for lack of a better word). Together we started to head forward while I looked for signs that would indicate how to get to the garage.

“What kind of wire do you need?” I whispered.

“Speaker wire.” He said, “Well, that’s what works best.”

“That’s all you need?” I asked.

“Should be.” He said. With that in mind, I started to look around for anything that looked like it was a large speaker. Anything that could be smashed open to get wire out of. It would create a lot of noise and draw attention to us so I knew once we found it we were going to have to do it quickly.

“All these slot machines have speakers.” I pointed out, “Let’s just smash one of those open.”

“Who smashes and who stands guard?” He asked. He had a point, someone was going to have to stand guard and I, in no way, could smash anything open as hard as it would need to be smashed to get what we needed. We moved to the nearest slot machine and I looked around before pulling my gun.

“You do it, I wouldn’t be strong enough,” I told him.

“You’re sure that you’re ready for this?” He asked. I nodded, but I could not respond verbally because the nod was a lie and the actual answer was a no. The thing was, I knew this was going to need to be done anyway so delaying it wasn’t going to help us in the long run. He nodded back at me and raised the axe then started to very angrily obliterate the slot machine in front of us. Luckily there was no power to any of these things anymore so we didn’t have to worry about electrical current or other sounds being emitted from the thing like alarms.

My heart started to pound in my chest, but soon the noise he was making stopped and I heard him get down, muttering to himself as he looked through the smashed bits of machinery to find what he needed. I kept my eyes open and sure enough, I heard a noise from behind us. It did not sound like a noise a living or healthy human would make. I turned to see a security guard who was completely undead heading towards me. Quickly.

“Fuck.” I muttered, “Billy.”

“Almost done.” He snapped.

“You better be.” I said, “Because if I have to fire this thing in here it’s just going to make more noise.”

“I know I know calm your tits.”

“Fuck.” I snapped and raised the gun. My hands shaking and my mind racing I took my shot. It definitely hit the guard but not anywhere that it needed to in order to do much damage. Of course, as any zombie fanatic would know, a head shot would be the kill shot. The problem was that when training to use a gun you learn to go for the widest part of the body as the larger the surface area the better the chance you had of getting a hit. I clipped the guard in the arm and took another shot. That one missed entirely. Not wanting to waste any more ammo, I dropped the gun by him and grabbed the axe.

“Lisa-”

“KEEP GOING!” I yelled at him and in a move of either utter stupidity or brilliance, I raced towards the zombie. As he leaned down, coming right at me with his teeth bared and jaw open, I swung right at him with the axe as hard as I possibly could. This did the trick, mostly. It went into his neck and cut into that just enough that his head mostly came off. It split to a point where he fell over. Once he was down I swung at him a few more times, which is what it took me to get his head entirely off.

“Damn, I think you could have stopped three swings ago.” I heard Billy say from behind me.

“Yeah well, had to make sure.” I panted. “Do you have the wire?” He held it up to show me that he did. His hands had been cut on some of the glass though. That wasn’t good. At all. I didn’t know how any of this zombie crap was transmitted but I could only believe that it had to be from body fluids like blood. Blood that I was now splashed with from my attack.

“Let’s go.”

“We need to make a few stops first.” I said, “Gift shop.” I motioned to where it was with my axe and grabbed my bag to hurry towards it.

“What? Why?”

“Just trust me on this!” I snapped at him as we hurried towards the store. A lot of it had been cleaned out but not everything. There were some options for clothing, which was good because I would need to change. “Take this and get that door open,” I said holding out the axe and motioning to the door behind the sale’s counter.

“What the hell for?”

“Willing to bet there’s an employee only bathroom back there and I’m going to need it to get cleaned up,” I said. “You need to wash your hands, wrap them up, and find gloves. You do not want any exposed or open wounds right now. Hurry up!” Though he seemed annoyed with being bossed around he did what I asked and used the axe to get the door open. I hurried back there and looked around. As suspected there was a bathroom as well as an office. I stepped into the bathroom and washed my hands, face, and arms quickly with the hottest water I could stand and a bunch of soap. I then stepped out to get into the office where I found a first aid kit. Thank God for that. I heard him go into the bathroom after me and start to run the water. We were lucky that it was still working but it probably wouldn’t be for much longer.

I stepped into the bathroom and set the first aid kit on the counter for him, then hurried to the gift shop to get the clothing I was going to need. As I was bending over to pick up one of the shirts I heard something behind me and turned to find a gun jammed right into my face. I squeaked softly but put my hands up to show that I meant no harm and did not have any weapons. Which I didn’t in the moment. Fuck. I had set the gun down out there. Well, this definitely wasn’t the same one. Hopefully, Billy had picked up the one I’d dropped when I went to get the axe.

It was a fairly disheveled and slightly unhinged looking woman who had the gun now trained on me. I tried not to glance at the door and keep as quiet as possible. I didn’t want to alert her to the idea that there was anyone else there. This was probably not going to work in my favor but I was banking on the fact that it was probably taking Billy a few minutes to finish bandaging his hands as I had told him to do before.

“Look, I just want to get out of here, same as you.” I said slowly, “No need to shoot me, I am not a threat to you I don’t want-”

“Bag, give it to me.” She said, motioning to my bag, “NOW!” I jumped at the loud, harsh tone of her voice but figuring it was my only option I looked back at her.

“I’m just going to lean down and grab it for you, okay? That’s it.”

“HURRY!”

“Okay, okay….take it easy,” I said leaning down slowly to pick up the bag. As much as I didn’t want to give it to her because I knew the drugs inside of it would end up being valuable trade items, I surely could figure something else out later. It would be easier to do that without a bullet in my head. I made sure to speak firmly and hopefully loud enough that Billy might be able to hear me in the back where he was. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do if he also hadn’t grabbed the gun, but if he hadn’t, maybe he’d know it was a good idea to hide. Once the bag was in my hand I held it out to her. She snatched it away quickly.

“You don’t want that,” Billy said from the doorway. Goddammit. This was probably going to work out as well as it had in the hallway the night before.

“Seems pretty heavy for something I don’t wa-” She paused mid-sentence because she had turned to look at him. Her eyes went wide. “You’re Billy Idol.”

“No, I’m not, I’m his stunt double.” He said.

“What?” She asked as if this made no sense to her, which it really didn’t, except that caused her to falter with her aim just slightly. It gave me a chance to grab an umbrella from the shelf behind where I was standing and smack her in the head with it. This wasn’t enough to knock her down but it was enough to get her to stumble and drop the bag. I grabbed it quickly.

“RUN!” I yelled at Billy. He didn’t have to hear me say that twice and he was right behind me as I bolted out of the door to there. I noticed, briefly, that his hands were at very least bandaged so that was a start. As long as we were careful, we could get through this without him getting infected. He didn’t have his bag with him, but he did have the wire, thank God.

“Where are we even going?” He asked.

“GET BACK HERE! MIKE! MIKE I FOUND PEOPLE!” The woman started screaming at the top of her lungs. There were two loud pops that I could only assume were gunshots but since I also didn’t feel any pain I kept going. I ran with Billy as fast as I could to the first set of doors I saw that said they were an exit. They led to another stairwell that went down. A sign on the wall said that it was the garage.

“GO GO GO GO!” He yelled at me, trying to get me to go ahead of him. I did that, as fast as I could and I heard his footsteps echoing after me and a few more gunshots in the hall, a bit closer. I shoved through the door on the last flight of stairs which opened into a parking garage. Stopping for a moment to catch my breath, Billy went ahead of me, but not too far. He started to quickly check each of the cars. Pulling on the handles. None of the doors were opening.

“The fuck are you doing?” I panted.

“Just…fuck…trust me on this!” He yelled back. Finally at the very end of the row of cars one of the doors opened. He motioned to me but kept silent. I could hear muffled voices in the stairwell coming down after us. I bolted to the car and dove down into the backseat. He got in with me and closed the door as quickly and quietly as possible, reaching up to lock all of the doors before getting down, on top of me so we were both hidden back there.

“How did you-”

“I figured something had to be unlocked, I was right, does it fucking matter?” He whispered. I shook my head and went quiet again. He ultimately hadn’t been wrong and I had done absolutely nothing so I wasn’t sure I was going to complain or question this any further. It wasn’t that stupid to assume someone had forgotten to lock a car door, he had just been playing the odds and luckily it had worked out for us. I could only hope now that when these people made it to the garage we would not be found easily and they’d just give up. I closed my eyes and started to pray to a God I wasn’t sure I believed in to keep both me and him safe.


	10. Chapter 10

“Are they gone?” I whispered, “Because you’re kind of crushing me and it’s very hot in here.” I knew that this was a life or death matter but if I ended up suffocating or dying of heat stroke in this car then all of it would be for nothing. Though the garage did make the car a bit cooler, as it wasn’t sitting in the hot desert sun, that didn’t mean it was entirely comfortable. By that point, my heart had calmed down and I was fearing less and less that I would jump into tachycardia which wouldn’t be good for either of us if it happened.

“I’ll check, you stay down.” He whispered. I rolled my eyes, it wasn’t as if I was some helpless little waif who couldn’t do anything herself, but then I realized what I was really being annoyed with. Honestly, I should be thankful there was someone else here and he was willing to lift his head up and look around for me. Not that I wanted anything to happen to him but had I been alone I would have been too scared to move so I knew I shouldn’t really be complaining about this. “Don’t see anything.”

He got up and turned to open the car door, slipping out of there as quietly as possible and looking around again. He paused and I could tell that he was waiting to see if any noises could be heard. Then I felt a tap on my ankle which prompted me to get up as well and slide out of the car. At least everything on me was dry, including the blood on my clothes. This left less chance of any of it getting into his wounds. When I was out, I shut the door behind me as quietly as possible. He motioned with his hand indicating we should start walking and looking for transportation. The motorcycle we needed. I had low hopes that we’d even find one at that point but I didn’t want to vocalize it. I grabbed onto his arm tightly as we started to walk.

It took us all the way to the top floor of this parking garage area to see a motorcycle. It was a nice one too, at least, if someone had asked me I would have said it was nice. Then again, I knew nothing about motorcycles beyond if I liked how they looked or not. He sped up, heading towards it, and that’s when I finally noticed that he did have the gun which had been tucked into the waistband of his pants and was under his shirt. I only noticed it now because of how the wind blew. I breathed a sigh of relief, that was definitely a good thing.

He got to work on the bike and I got down behind him, pulling the gun and checking it to make sure the safety was off, just in case I was going to have to use it sometime soon. We didn’t know if that crazy chick and the guy she had called for was gone yet, we just knew that they weren’t up here.

“This might take me just a little bit of time, haven’t done it for a while.”

“Why did you ever do it?” I asked.

“I forget my keys a lot and this is better than trying to find them.” He said. That kind of made sense, maybe. I didn’t picture him as the type to need to steal bikes or want to steal them. It also was vastly different than a car and very possibly it was easier to hotwire than a car. I didn’t know.

“Just try to be as fast as possible,” I said and started to pace around the area in a circular pattern so I could keep my eyes and ears on everything. Somehow the zombies hadn’t gotten into the garage to over run it. This was concerning because it might mean that there would be a blockade to get out of there. It also made no sense to me how none of them had gotten into the hotel. They were all crowded around outside of here and the general hotel area, all down the strip, but they had not gotten into this hotel or this garage. It was a good thing as much as it was a bad thing but there had to be a reason.

“HEY!” A loud female voice shouted from across the lot. I turned, aiming my gun in the general direction of the voice. It wasn’t the same woman as before. This woman looked far less frantic and more put together. She also wasn’t armed or covered in blood and grime with ripped clothing. She put her hands up so I could see them. “You don’t want to leave.”

“Why the fuck not?” Billy asked loudly, but he hadn’t turned to look at her, he was still working on his bike. As the woman got closer I could see that the outfit she was wearing was a grey security uniform, it was different from the green and white one I’d seen the zombie guard in the casino wearing before I’d killed him. It must have been from another hotel.

“Because,” She said, “They can’t get in here, we’re secure here.”

“He needs help,” I said, motioning to Billy.

“Bullshit, I’m fine.”

“He has an infection, on his back. He’s not infected, as in with the zombie virus. He was cut badly when the…wait, where is that other woman?” I said this entire time I hadn’t lowered my gun thinking that this could very easily be some sort of trick.

“Her? Yeah, she and her boyfriend got in.” The woman explained, “Through the sewers. I put a stop to them.”

“How?”

“Does it matter?” The woman asked, “It probably saved your life. You’re lucky I even noticed.”

“Fair point, but we still need to leave,” I said.

“And go where?” Now that she was much closer I could see her name tag. Just a last name, Dawson. She was also a fairly attractive brunette. I blinked a few times. The irony was a fickle mistress. Okay, Dawson wasn’t the most uncommon name in the world and semi attractive security agents weren’t either. It had to just be a coincidence.

“I uh…I don’t know.” I said. “At very least some place that has antibiotics. I told you, he has an infection.”

“I can help you find some. There’s hundreds of rooms in this hotel, most that I haven’t even looked through. Statistically, we are bound to find something.” Dawson explained. Before I could answer, the engine to the bike came to life roaring loudly. This made me jump and I turned to look at Billy who stood up looking very proud of himself. Hell, even I was impressed because I in no way believed he could do this, and definitely not as fast as he had managed to do it. “Is that Billy Idol?”

“It’s his stunt double.” I said flatly, “How did you know to secure this hotel? Why is it secure and how well is it secured?”

“I was on duty when the plane crashed.” She said, “Of course at that point, the vast majority of people knew and started to evacuate the hotel. There wasn’t much of a way to send a message to people to evacuate, given that the power was out so there was a bit of a mass panic situation downstairs. Despite the chaos, we got a shit ton of people out of here in about 5 minutes. They all just kind of ran out into the street. It was around then that I saw uh…well it’ll sound crazy but I saw someone stagger towards a woman and just take a bite right out of her neck. I knew then that something wasn’t right. I turned and I came back into the hotel and punched in the emergency code to lower the security shuttles. This is a five-star hotel we have measures in place for various disasters. Can’t exactly say there was a zombie protocol until now but, still.”

“Oi! Let’s go!” Billy snapped at me. I shook my head.

“Just wait a minute.” I yelled at him and turned back to Dawson, “And you, seeing that, and only that decided the best course of action was to panic room the entire hotel?”

“Look, I don’t know about you lady but that’s basically how every zombie movie starts. I figured if I was wrong, then what the fuck was the harm? But, I wasn’t wrong, was I? Now, those other two, the crazy ones that were chasing you, they got in from the sewers. I suppose they didn’t expect to run into anyone.” She explained.

“Billy,”

“We aren’t staying.”

“There is nowhere to go. I can’t even get anyone on the radio.” Dawson said, “So even if this is an isolated incident, which I doubt, it could be a very long time before you find a safe area. My scanner isn’t picking up any activity.”

“How do we know you aren’t lying?” I asked.

“I don’t have a reason to lie. I’m trying to keep you safe. If you want to leave I’ll certainly let you leave, I’m not trying to keep anyone captive. However, it’s still within your best interest to stay here. Just look over that railing. You’ll see why.” She said, motioning to the cement wall with the metal railing that would overlook the city. I lowered the gun slowly then walked towards it, slapping Billy on the back of the head to get him to come over there with me. He was more eager to leave than I was so I thought it might benefit him to take a look. He growled in annoyance and got off of the bike, but still left it running, to go to the wall with me.

We both peered over at the same time. From this vantage point, it looked incredibly worse than it had from the 35th floor. I could see these undead creatures in much more detail now, and even smell them. The prospect of going out there was not one that I liked or wanted to face. At all. We had the motorcycle now, sure, but where would we go, what was the plan? If what Dawson was saying was true then we might succumb to the hoards of zombies before we ever got to someone that could help us.

“She may be right,” I whispered to him.

“I don’t disagree with that, but staying here and doing nothing helps us how?” He asked, “I’m not fucking blind to the fact that my back is infected and we just don’t have what we need here to take care of it.”

“We may not.” I said, “She’s right about what she says, statistically with all the people in this hotel someone is bound to have brought antibiotics into their room.”

“And if your statistics are wrong?”

“Then we can leave and try something else.” I said, “Please, Billy, for all we know there are survivors this is isolated, and they do intend to come this way to see if there is anyone here who needs help. She has a working radio.”

“Could be a trick.”

“I don’t think it is,” I said. He grabbed the gun from my hand and walked towards Dawson pointing the gun right at her head, she stayed still and calm amazingly maintaining eye contact with him instead of frozen in terror staring at the gun. “Billy!”

“Are you fucking lying to us?”

“No.” She said.

“Tell the truth! Whoever that daft cunt was before, came in and tried to mug us, fuck only knows who the hell that Mike guy was that she was calling for. You make up some bullshit about how they got in through the sewers and we are just supposed to believe that you’re the good guy in a city full of undead, perverts, and whatever the holy hell that blond bitch was?” He ranted.

“They’re dead. I shot them.” Dawson said, “Had no choice. I can take you to the bodies, I’ll even let you hold me at gun point until you feel everything is safe.” He glared at her for another moment and slowly started to lower the gun.

“Take us, I’m still keeping this.” He said firmly then walked back over to the bike and pulled the wire he had rigged so the engine stopped running. “If you’re lying I will shoot you.”

“Billy,”

“Shut up, Lisa.” He said, “I’ve agreed to stay, haven’t I? But, I don’t trust any of this and I seriously fucking don’t know why you do.”

“She hasn’t tried to disarm us, she didn’t come up here armed, she even told us we could leave if we wanted, why would she-”

“Reverse psychology.” He snapped. I could completely understand his irritation with this situation, even his fear, but I believed Dawson was genuine. To be fair, I knew I could be wrong. He had a point, she could be lying, but treating her this way was going to work against us if ultimately she wasn’t.

“Okay so, right this way, Billy Idol’s stunt double and assistant?” Dawson asked chuckling nervously trying to lighten the mood with a bit of a joke.

“My name’s Lisa, actually and I’m not-”

“She’s my girlfriend.” Billy said unceremoniously then used the hand with the gun he was holding to motion for Dawson to start walking, “Let’s go. Do you still have that bag with you?”

“Yeah,” I said, jogging quickly to the motorcycle where I had set it down to pick it up again. Slinging it over my shoulder I ran to catch up to them. I wanted to tell him to calm down but since I completely understood the mindset he was in, I also kind of didn’t want him to. I didn’t know if this was a trick or not, I had a feeling it wasn’t but that wasn’t much to base anything on. Not in this situation. We were in the middle of sin city, I could very well imagine there were a lot of tricksters. I needed to stop assuming that just because this female security officer’s name (or last name) was Dawson, that she had anything to do with my character of Leila Dawson. She was a stranger, it was a coincidence and everybody had a motive to lie right now. Everyone except the one person I believed I could trust here, which happened to be Billy Idol. I seriously felt like I was starting to lose my mind.

Dawson did as she promised she would do and led us to the bodies of the blond woman and presumably Mike. It wasn’t something I wanted to see, nor did I really need to, so about ten seconds and half a glimpse later I was moving away from the dumpster she had dragged them over to. Billy was a little less unnerved by it, though to be fair, he could have just been putting on some sort of tough guy front. That was equally possible. I didn’t care. I’d seen enough dead and undead bodies for my entire life that day.

“Well, anything to say?”

“Maybe I was wrong.” Billy said which I believed was probably as close to an apology as this woman was going to get. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see him standing there. He faltered for just a second, I saw it in his eyes and I felt a tremble in his grasp. He handed me the gun. “What’s the easiest way to get up to my room again?”

“Walk,” Dawson said. “Still haven’t figured out how to get the elevators to work with the backup generators, which are on their last legs anyway. I shut down a lot of the areas to conserve power, it’s why a lot of things are still working but…not for long.” I was only half listening to her explain this because I was watching Billy more and he was obviously struggling not to fall.

“You know, I’m thirsty and we haven’t had anything to eat today so we’re going to go take care of that and…you can do whatever you want,” I said taking Billy’s arm. I don’t think he wanted to admit that he felt like crap but he definitely did. There was a reason for it too. The infection and I’d never actually managed to get him anything to help lower his fever. Not to mention the stress level that we were both experiencing that day or the fact that as much as I thought I could trust this security guard I was still questioning it. I walked with him back into the lobby area and he sat down heavily. I got a bottle of water out and handed it to him.

“Lisa?” Dawson’s voice called for me. She had followed us but stayed relatively far behind and was only just in the doorway. I turned to look at her and then looked back at Billy. He was chugging the water. So much for warning him on that one because I was pretty sure he was going to be puking most of it back up in a moment.

“Coming.” I called, “You stay here, lay down if you have to just…deep breaths.” He stopped drinking and glared at me.

“Thanks.” His word was appreciative but his tone was very much ‘fuck you’.

“I’m just trying to help and I don’t want you to puke up all that water you just drank way too fast,” I said softly then headed over to where Lisa was.

“How did you end up here with Billy Idol?” She asked softly.

“That’s uh…personal,” I replied not wanting to quell the idea that he wasn’t my boyfriend. For one, he had said I was his girlfriend for whatever reason, and for two, I kind of liked that. Though it had probably just been a lie in order to make us sound very close to each other in an attempt to make this woman think she couldn’t come between us, I knew better than to stop playing along with it and make either of us seem like we were liars. “Does it even matter?”

“I guess it doesn’t, just seems really surreal.”

“I can agree with that.” I said, “Look he’s…sick. He’s only going to get worse and he’s fighting a fever. I need to get him food and I need to get him ibuprofen, both of those things should still be easy to find so if we could just…”

“Yeah, there should be some of both in the gift shop still.” She said, “Go sit with him I’ll get it. You two seem like quite the interesting pair you know.”

“Thanks?” I replied not sure if it was a compliment or an insult. Not that I cared. I was too tired to care and if she didn’t like whatever my situation was with Billy now she could shove it up her ass. I walked back over to where he was, which was the couch which he was now laying on with his eyes closed and staying very still.

“You may have been right about drinking the water so fast.”

“This is the part where I would say I told you so if I was a bitch.”

“You are a bitch.”

“Well, then, I told you so.” I smiled. He chuckled but only for a moment before stopping. He swallowed hard like he was trying to suppress a gag and for a moment I thought it wasn’t going to work but he managed to keep everything down. “Just breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, keep it slow and steady don’t let your body get a chance to trigger the gag reflex. Rapid breathing…doesn’t help with that.”

“How do you-”

“I told you I know a lot of stuff because I research it.” I replied, “Also I’ve had some medical issues in my life and medicine fascinates me, as well as psychology, so I mean I guess it just became a hobby of mine to research it. That character I told you I write, Leila, she’s a psychiatrist usually.”

“Usually?”

“Sometimes she’s an FBI agent, but you know, forensic psychiatrist. Either way, part of that is being a medical doctor so I need to know a lot.” I said.

“Sometimes?” He whispered, “Oh right the other stories.” Crap, I reminded him about that I was hoping he’d forget I said anything at all.

“Just relax, focus on your breathing. I’ll tell you later.”

“You think I’m going to forget but I’m not.” He said then smiled, “You read my book you know I don’t forget things.”

“Shut up,” I said and sat down on the arm of the couch reaching down to fix his hair a bit with my fingers as I waited for Dawson to get back.

By the time Dawson had returned Billy seemed to feel a bit less nauseated. At least to a point that he was sitting up and talking more. He didn’t have an appetite, though, and I was hesitant to let him take the ibuprofen on an empty stomach so after a bit of an argument it was decided that it was going to have to wait. I convinced him to lay down again, which took more arguing, before heading off with Dawson to go look at the power grid for the hotel and see what we could possibly do about the elevators. I still had the gun on me but I wasn’t holding it anymore.

“What do the generators run on? If it’s gas or something that should be easy enough to siphon out of cars.” I told her.

“True enough.” She said, “I think, first, we should figure out how to reroute the power to exactly where we need it though. Instead of refueling and wasting it beforehand. In theory, the generators do have enough power to provide one small area of this place with everything. I was reading the manuals, I got bored.” She said and motioned to a stack of binders on the desk near the control panels.

“Where are the generators?” I asked.

“That would be the second problem. They are outside, in back.” She said. Now it made sense to me why she hadn’t tried to refuel them even though there was a parking garage full of a free fuel source. Except there were three of us now, well, at least two. It was going to come back down to one standing guard and one filling the generators. Shit. I wasn’t going to let Billy go out there in the condition he was in, nor did I intend to tell him this was part of the plan.

“How much power is left?” I asked, not being able to figure out the gauges on the panel for the life of me. Dawson looked them over for a moment. She flipped a few switches and the emergency lights in there flickered for a moment before coming back even brighter than they were before. She then flicked a few more and there was the start of a loud hum. The air conditioning came on, at least in that room.

“There, I put everything into the lobby area, for now. The rest of the hotel is completely shut down, and I still don’t know how to get the fucking elevators to work. We’d all be much safer on the top floor. We’d run both elevators up there and freeze them with a key, until we needed them again, barricade the stairs. That would be the safest place until help arrived. I could even get the radio up there as well.” She motioned over to a very old fashioned CB type radio which was on, but as she’d said before, there was just no communication on it.

“So, with the changes, how much time do we have with the power still going?” I asked again knowing she had to be avoiding answering the question for a reason.

“Probably about three hours, four at most. If we are going to do this we’ll need to do it fast because we’ll lose daylight soon and those fuckers get even angrier at night.” She looked at me. I really didn’t want to do this but I knew it was our best option. It would then give us time to figure out the system enough to power at least one of the elevators and get us back upstairs. We could get Billy into a bed and let him rest properly. The only problem was risking certain death to do it. There were very few people on the planet I would do something like this for and I was coming to find out he was apparently one of them.

“Alright, but I want to hear a solid plan way before we start, and you better not fuck me on this,” I told her. She smiled softly and nodded.

“Let’s get to work.”


	11. Chapter 11

We did have a solid game plan but that didn’t mean that I had any sort of faith in it working. At least I was the lucky one. Dawson was going to hold off the zombies as best she could while I poured the gas into the generators. She said that there was a security fence around the area, which didn’t surprise me, but the zombie could end up climbing it or even pushing it completely over if there were enough of them. She did show me the shotgun and quite a bit of ammo she had. Not to mention the ammo she had for her handgun. Luckily, it was the same caliber as my own gun so if I ran out I would have more. Presumably. I hadn’t asked her if I could have any but since she knew guns there was no way she didn’t know what I was holding on me was a 9mm.

After we developed our strategy we flipped a coin to see who would actually have to siphon the gas. Luckily, I won that and didn’t have to do it either. I didn’t think I wanted it bad enough to risk getting some in my mouth sucking it out to start the whole process. Dawson grumbled about it but ultimately agreed that what was fair was fair and she would be a good sport about losing. The more we talked the more I was coming to believe she really was a decent person. I still didn’t want to let go of the mistrustful part of me, though. The side that said she could potentially be lying about anything. For now, I would stay relaxed and continue to keep an eye on her.

It was about an hour after that point when the two of us figured out how to reroute power to one of the elevators. It was only one but that was all we were going to need. The lights down there started to flicker and get a bit dimmer but we’d also diverted most of the power to the 35th floor, leaving only the emergency lights on down there. Dawson got me a flashlight from the security closet and hooked one to her belt as well.

“Alright let’s get Billy back upstairs and then do this,” I said.

“You don’t intend to tell him anything about this, do you?” She asked.

“Not even slightly.” I sighed, “Kind of hoping he’ll be so feverish and delusional that by the time we get upstairs all he’s going to want to do is pass out.”

“That will probably be the case.” Dawson replied, “However, as soon as we get this gas in the generator we will need to search every last corner of this hotel for supplies in other rooms, especially antibiotics.” I nodded and headed out of the control room back to Billy who was curled up on the couch where I had left him, asleep and shivering. Well, at least my theory about him being too sick to really question anything was right but it also worried me. I was going to have to get him on some kind of antibiotic and quickly or else he just wasn’t going to survive. Hell, he still may not survive but the antibiotics would at least give him a far better chance of it.

“Hey, Billy, get up,” I said shaking him gently. He groaned and tried to slap my hand away. “I know you don’t want to but we got the elevator working we can take you back to your room.” This grabbed his attention and he sat up quickly then put a hand to his head and groaned again.

“Take it easy,” Dawson said.

“Shut up…still not sure what I think of you.” He snapped at her.

“Sorry,” I told her.

“It’s fine,” Dawson said coming over so we could both help Billy to his feet. He was not very appreciative of this until he nearly collapsed seconds after he actually got to his feet leaving both me and Dawson to catch him and steady him. He muttered something that I wasn’t even sure was English and we started to walk him towards the elevator.

It felt good to get him back into his room and in an actual bed. It also didn’t take him very much coaxing to get him to rest. I told him that I was going to go search the hotel with Dawson for antibiotics and I would be back soon. It was only really half of a lie, the half I left out being that I intended to help her with the generators. Once we were out of there, we headed back down to the main floor. There wasn’t much to say between us. Perhaps because we very well knew that what we were about to do was risk death and it was not the best situation to be in.

Collecting the gas was the easy part. We only needed to siphon from two cars before we had enough. It was then that the gas canister was handed over to me. We walked back through the hotel so Dawson could get her shotgun and then out through a back corridor to another door with an exit sign above it. One that I could only see because Dawson shone her flashlight up there for me.

“Look,” She said, “If you can’t do this or you are going to wimp out on me, say something now and I’ll try to do it myself.”

“No,” I said, “You wouldn’t ever get it done yourself. We have to do it together there’s a better chance of survival.” She offered a small nod.

“I have your back.” She said and cocked the shotgun. I didn’t doubt that she did. Not necessarily because I trusted her but more because she needed this done as much as I needed it done and it would make very little sense for her to screw me over. She opened the door with a violent kick and aimed the gun, firing off one shot quickly towards the fence. This immediately blasted back the group of zombies that were swarming around it. “GO!”

I probably would have stared blankly at the hoard forever had she not screamed at me. I ran to the generator and started to look for the area to fill the tank, my heart pounding as another shot rang out. She had said it would be on the side but I couldn’t find anything like a fill tap or even a cap to remove. Okay, I was panicked, the only logical area it could be here was on this side. There was no other way to access the machine. I needed to focus. Look closely. I could sense the chainlink fence around me shaking, then I heard the metal rattling. Another shot rang out.

“HURRY IT THE FUCK UP!”

“I’M TRYING!” I screamed back half in anger, half in fear. Finally, I spotted a black cap near the bottom of the generator that I was able to get open. I quickly started to pour the gas in, forcing myself to focus only on what was in front of me and not what was going on around me. It was damn hard but I knew if I looked around to see myself surrounded by a shit ton of dead but somehow walking corpses I was going to freak out, lose my nerve, and run back inside. I took in slow deep breaths and let them out equally as slow to keep the panic at bay. The smell of rotting flesh, plus the gas from the canister was nauseating me. The moment the canister ran dry I pulled it back and fumbled with the cap to get it back on. Another shot rang out. “DONE!”

“LET’S GO!” Dawson yelled at me. I turned and bolted for the door, Dawson was right behind me she shut it tightly the moment we were inside and pulled her ring of keys to lock it.

“Holy shit.” I panted, “They are that close to getting in here? At all times? Shouldn’t we put up more of door barricade?”

“Well,” She replied going down the corridor to the next door and opening it to let me walk in first. “We could do that but what about when we need to get out there again to refill the generators?”

“I’m hoping we won’t need to do that a second time. That help will-”

“There probably isn’t help.” She said flatly and kept walking towards the lobby so we could get back upstairs. I grabbed my bag, which I had left by the couch that Billy had been on. Once we were outside of the elevator doors she pressed the button for me. “Go back up to him, I’ll search the hotel I need to take care of a few things down here anyway.”

“But-”

“But nothing, don’t worry about me. I got the shotgun, remember?” She smiled holding the weapon up. I smiled back weakly and nodded.

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you. I’d be so screwed if you weren’t willing to do that for me. For…us.” She said. I stepped into the elevator and let the doors close, waving to her weakly as they did. I was starting to consider that maybe her motives were far more pure than my suspicions originally told me they were.

When I got back up to the room, Billy was not in the bed anymore and this instantly rushed panic through me, that was until I heard very loud retching in the bathroom. I was still nauseated from what I had seen and smelled outside and I had never been good around anyone who was puking. I sat down on the bed and waited, trying to calm my own stomach. I was tired, dizzy, and my head was pounding. I needed water and I needed food. I reached down to open the bag to get out something to drink and felt the bed move behind me as Billy climbed back into it and curled up.

“I’m going to die.”

“No, you aren’t.” I told him, “Don’t say that.”

“Fucking hell, you don’t know that any better than I do and at least I can feel well…what I feel. It’s death.”

“You puked, which I’m sure you’ve done a lot before. It’s a fever and a mild infection we will get you antibiotics and they will work.” I said, “You can’t expect this to be quick.”

“Lisa,”

“No, shut up. You survived the 70s, you survived your motorcycle accident, you survived overdosing, you will fucking survive this because if you don’t I’ll make sure you regret it.” I snapped at him angrily.

“I-” He paused and then started to laugh, “You really are a bitch.”

“Damn right I am,” I said. I figured he was laughing because of how I pretty much told him if he died I’d make him regret it somehow, which really didn’t make sense but at least it got his attention. I couldn’t think about him dying right now, and I certainly wouldn’t allow him to think it. The more he thought he would die the more he would give up and that was the last thing that would help him. A positive attitude was what would help him. “You need to take another one of these pills.”

I got the bottle of penicillin out from the bag and moved towards him with it, as well as a bottle of water. He’d taken one that day already and by all accounts, he should have already taken all four but I needed this stuff to last. I knew that antibiotics stayed in a person’s system long after the course was over but I also didn’t think to make him take four at once would do anything other than making him feel sicker.

“Fuck off with that,” He said, “I’ll just be sick again.”

“No, you won’t.” I said, “Please, Billy. For the love of god you have to try I…I can help you with this.”

“How?”

“I’ll get you something to help with the nausea.” I said, “I…I can do that.” I started to go through the bag of stuff that I’d picked up quickly, pulling out every last pill bottle that I had jammed in there and tossing it to the floor until I got to the one that I wanted. Benedryl. It was a long shot but I knew that Benedryl could be used as an antiemetic and at very least it would make him drowsy. The nausea center of the brain was in the same area as the sleep center. It would shut his brain down enough to prevent him from vomiting up the antibiotic.

“Lisa, I don’t think we should tempt fate on this one.”

“We don’t have to,” I said and opened the bottle of Benedryl. It made sense that the drug addicts in the other room had this. A lot of people took it to enhance the high of narcotics as well as prevent the itchy feeling that the histamine release of high doses of narcotics caused. I’d even used it for the same reasons before. “Sit up.”

“No.”

“SIT THE FUCK UP AND DO WHAT I FUCKING SAY!” I yelled at him angrily. He shifted, not quickly but he gave me a look, almost as if he was impressed with me for ordering him around like that. Without a word, he sat up and held his hand out. I put two pills of the Benedryl in his palm and he put them in his mouth, kind of glaring at me before motioning to the water bottle I was holding. I gave it to him and he swallowed the pills with two gulps of water before holding it back out to me to take. “There, not so hard was it?”

“Don’t yell at me like that again.”

“Why not? It worked, didn’t it?”

“Yes but that’s cheating.”

“How?”

“Daddy doesn’t like cheaters,” he growled but he knew exactly what he was doing. I blushed and looked away from him before standing up and walking to the pile of food that had been left in there because it couldn’t be packed with our stuff when we had tried to leave before. I grabbed another bag of the mini chocolate chip cookies and walked it over to him.

“You have to eat.”

“Cookies?”

“We don’t have anything else.” I said, “Look, I’ll give you 20 minutes for those pills to kick in, then you eat three or four of these to get something in your stomach and take another dose of antibiotics, after that I’ll let you sleep for as long as you need to. Deal?”

“Almost.” He said. “I want another story.”

“Oh God,”

“Unless you can get that TV to work, you’re going to have to entertain me. I get bored and when I get bored I get naughty.” He smiled cheekily at me, I noticed the chills starting to return and could even feel the bed shake. I grabbed the blanket and pulled it up over him gently.

“Fine,” I said, “After you take your medication.”

“Sounds good to me.” He muttered and then yawned. I laid back by him and started to stroke his hair softly closing my eyes as well. Hopefully what I was saying would actually work but I had no idea. The only thing I did know was that I couldn’t let him die because without him there I was 100% sure I’d just walk right into that hoard of zombies voluntarily and never look back.


	12. Chapter 12

When I woke up the next time I smelled food. Actual food. Like someone had cooked something and brought it into the room. I groaned softly, praying that it wasn’t a dream then sat up. I hit Billy in the arm and he hit me back in the arm. Nothing violent or painful, more just a quick way of him telling me to fuck off.

“Food.”

“So what?”

“Real food, hot food, someone cooked something,” I told him and got out of the bed. He probably still didn’t have an appetite but I certainly did. Running around and trying to avoid zombie death was apparently an activity that worked up one hell of an appetite. I walked to the door and opened it. Dawson was in there eating something out of a bowl. “Food?”

“Well, we had to cut the power to the kitchen.” She said, “A lot of stuff is frozen so should keep for a day or two as long as it stays in the freezer area. Started with the fish, which was fresh. Rice, some veggies. I dunno, not much of a cook but I found a few recipes back there. It’s not awful.”

“Certainly doesn’t smell awful,” I said, but I was so hungry that I was also convinced in the moment I’d eat a leather shoe if it was boiled for a couple hours. I walked to the table she was sitting at. There were two bowls. Nothing fancy, as she said, but the scent was mouth watering so I picked up one of the bowls. Seemed to be an improvised shrimp and scallop stir fry dish. I started to eat, moving to the couch to take a seat.

“You made food?” Billy grumbled from the doorway.

“Yeah,” Dawson said.

“Not half bad either,” I said through an entire mouthful of food, then realized how rude it was and put my hand up over my mouth. He gave her a suspicious look and half stumbled over to the table putting a hand on either side of it, staring her down.

“It’s not a trick, right?”

“How the fuck am I going to trick you with poorly made stir fry?” She asked.

“Gimme that.” He grabbed the bowl she was eating from, which still had quite a bit in it, and started to eat from it himself. He came over to where I was sitting and sat down, grumbling under his breath and looking half dead.

“Alright then,” Dawson muttered and grabbed the bowl she had left for him and started to eat from it instead.

“Why did you do that?” I asked after swallowing my food.

“She’s isn’t going to poison her own food.” He insisted.

“She’s not going to poison any of us.” I said, “Billy, trust me at this point, she’s not any sort of danger we have to worry about.”

“How do you fucking know?” He demanded. If I had to guess, in the moment, he had a very high fever and felt like shit. That combined with the fact that he had less reason to trust her than I currently did because he also didn’t have the experience I had, it kind of made sense he’d be just a bit delirious.

“Hey Rebel Yell, think fast.” Dawson snapped. Billy looked up and a bottle of pills came flying towards the both of us. Due to Billy’s fevered condition, he very well would have let that bottle smack him in the face, had my hand not darted up and caught it. I looked the label over. Penicillin. “It’s not a full bottle either but it’s still something. Seems like half a course.”

“Now why would she get you this if she was also trying to kill you?”

“I don’t fucking know.” He said, snatching the pills from my hand. “Why are you suddenly all buddy buddy with her anyway?”

“Because we had to go outside to the generators and she kept me alive while I refueled them. Then she went and made us food and looked for medication for you while she sent me back up here to rest.” I said.

“You did WHAT?” He demanded.

“Is there any point in getting upset about this now? I lived, didn’t I? So did she! Now we have power, the radio, food, and medication. Want to spaz out anymore or apologize?” I asked him. He glared at me and went back to his food, continuing to eat it and saying nothing. As much as I completely understood why he was like this and that he didn’t feel very well, I also felt it was uncalled for behavior. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Dawson sighed, “He’s not feeling well and I’m sure he has a high fever, probably contributing to the cranky and nearly paranoid mood he seems to be in.”

“I’m not paranoid just…being cautious is all.” He said under his breath, I was sure that Dawson couldn’t even hear him at that point. I glanced in his direction, he had the most pouty expression I’d ever seen as he went back to eating. At least he was doing that, then I could convince him to take his medication after. At least I hoped I could.

“Mind if I shower?”

“No, go right ahead.” I sighed. She took a few more bites of food before heading out of there through the bedroom and shutting the door behind her. I looked over at Billy, “You be nice.”

“Look I’m sorry if I want to keep you safe and I’m sorry if that also means being an utter wanker.”

“That wasn’t even close to an apology.”

“That’s the closest you’re gonna get.” He snapped. I knew he was right so there was no real reason to keep arguing. I was too tired to care. I ate a few more bites of food and then got up to grab a bottle of water. When I came back I placed it next to him and opened the pill bottle. I took out another dose of the antibiotic and set it down on the table in front of him where he could see it. He looked at me then the pill snatched it up, and popped it in his mouth. Turning his head to look at me, and keeping his eyes on me the entire time, he opened the bottle of water and swallowed the pill.

“Thank you,” I said softly then finished the last few bites of my food.

“If you weren’t here I’d have already let myself die.”

“No you wouldn’t have, don’t be stupid.”

“Really? Explain to me how I’d have done anything to fix my back had you not been here?” He asked, “Probably would have never gotten up, bled to death right there on the floor.”

“Someone would have found you.”

“Who?” He asked. “That pervert that tried to off you with his ax?”

“Well, that’s not what happened and we are here now. You will get better and we will get help. That’s all there is to it.” I insisted.

“That’s a lot of shit that’s probably not going to happen in a city where the vast majority of the population is fucking….animated corpses.” He said.

“For now, we are fine, and we will hear something on the radio soon enough,” I said putting my hand on his. I fully expected him to pull it away but he didn’t. Instead, he took my hand and gave it a squeeze.

“And if we don’t?”

“We’ll think about that when we have to.” I whispered, “You will be fine, you just need to keep taking the antibiotics regularly and make sure to get a decent dose in your system to at least start fighting the infection, okay? If you are only staying alive for me then that’s what I want you to do.” He rolled his eyes then growled softly, going back to his food but it wasn’t a ‘no’ so it was the answer I was going to take. I yawned and curled up next to him on the couch, closing my eyes. This certainly was more than I had signed up for when I paid the ticket price for my vacation.


	13. Chapter 13

Two days passed by very slowly. I had very little to do other than watch after Billy as he suffered through the infection and fever and pray that nothing got up to the 35th floor. During the day, when the zombies seemed to be less energized, Dawson and I would head down to the lobby to collect what few supplies we could. Thanks to the kitchen in the restaurant, we had plenty of food. Except Billy was complaining about the meat and refused to eat it. Something about his diet being plant and fish based, not that he made a tremendous amount of sense during his fevered ramblings. Mostly what he did was sleep and I kind of envied that because I certainly would have liked to pass the time in that manner but it wasn’t possible. Even if there wasn’t any real danger it was too hot up there during the day and absolutely freezing at night. The constant anxiety had me waking up at every given sound that I heard, no matter how faint it was.

On the morning of the third day when I woke, I was in bed alone. This was not how it was supposed to be. So far, the past two days, when I had woken up (any time I had woken up) Billy had been asleep next to me. That morning, he wasn’t there. This caused me to bolt up right and look around. I held my breath as I listened for any sort of sound. I could hear water running in the bathroom and this prompted me to get out of the bed and head towards there. Billy was in the shower and he looked a hundred times better than he had in the pervious few days. He looked awake, energized, like he’d never felt better. I leaned against the doorway and smiled at him.

“You’re looking well.” I said.

“I feel fantastic. Woke up, and you know, this is the first morning I didn’t feel like I might die. I was just…so alive you know?” He replied except something was wrong here. Though I didn’t doubt that he woke up feeling a lot better, his enthusiasm wasn’t going to be this high due to that. I came closer to him and grabbed his arm. He turned to look at me, huge grin on his face. “What? Wanna fuck in the shower? Ever done that, it’s fun. Trust me.”

“Did you take something?”

“Take something? What? Don’t be stupid…what would I take?”

“If I go out to that bag, and look at the coke that I found nothing will be-”

“Alright alright I may have had a line or two, what’s the harm?” He asked then grabbed my arm with his free one and pulled me in close kissing me in a way that I would have described as both sloppy and rough at the same time. I kissed him back but only for a moment before managing to convince myself to pull away and slap him. This behavior should not be rewarded, especially not coming from someone like him. “Feisty, I like that.”

“Well keep liking it. You should not be doing coke!”

“What are you my mother? I just survived three days in a fucking zombie apocalypse with a back wound that should have offed me. I am allowed to celebrate a bit.”

“Why not just have a drink?” I demanded.

“That’s so boring I can do that any time I want. Lighten up Lisa.” He snorted and shut off the water. I shook my head and walked out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I knew I shouldn’t be as upset as I was but I really couldn’t help it. As much as I agreed that maybe he had a little bit of a point with what he was saying it wasn’t a good thing. For one, we only had a limited supply of the stuff and once he did all of it, then what? Well, he wasn’t going to get to do all of it. That was for sure. I stormed out of the bedroom area to the bag where the coke was kept. As I suspected, everything in it had been disturbed, including a few of the pill bottles. Shit. I gathered up anything that would be considered a narcotic and found the room safe. Since we still had power to the room the safe would work just fine. I jammed all of it in there and programmed it with a code that I assumed he’d never figure out. Then I locked it shut. This way he would have to stay true to his word about not doing anything because there was no way he could get to the rest of it.

“What crawled up your ass and died?” I heard Dawson mutter from the couch. I turned to look at her, unaware that she had been awake. Maybe she hadn’t been. Maybe all of my door slamming and stomping around had been what woke her up. That or the yelling at Billy.

“He did coke. Why didn’t you stop him?” I demanded.

“I didn’t know…?” She asked, slowly sitting up and rubbing her eyes. “I don’t know much about Billy Idol, not really a fan honestly, but if I had to have made a guess I would have said he quit that stuff years ago. Mostly because he’s not dead now. He’s like 70 right?”

“60, and that’s besides the point.” I sighed, “He did quit, mostly, the hard stuff at least. Or so he claimed. I think possibly he was still doing some stuff before this just not coke. You know…moderation and all of that. Mostly it would have been pot. Except his rational thought on this seems to be he deserved to celebrate because he could have died.”

“Maybe he has a point.”

“I agree he kind of has a point but I also agree more that I’m not going to let him become a coke addict, again, before we get out of here. I should have just tossed the shit or left it where I found it.” I said.

“Why did you take it with you anyway?”

“I figured that in an apocalypse situation drugs like that would be better than currency which probably means very little at this point in time. Well, considering whatever the scope of the situation might be. I mean, to be honest, it may already be contained to a small region. I don’t see how that’s possible but-” Before I could finish, the radio that had done nothing and been silent since we had brought it up there crackled and there was a static filled voice. A bunch of jumbled words. Dawson ran towards it and started to mess with it, she’d know how to use it better than I would so I let her as I stayed quiet and watched. After a moment of messing with the knobs and dials she got the voice to come in far more clear.

“This is Lieutenant Hoffman of the 57th Precinct looking for any survivors.” It was a deep, male voice. Very commanding. Also the name just had to be Hoffman.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I muttered.

“What?” Dawson asked, “Never mind…just shut up for a minute.”

“Fine.” I moved to sit down on the couch near the radio so I could hear the conversation better. She grabbed the receiver and pressed the button as she raised it to her lips.

“This is Lara Dawson, I’m a security guard at the four seasons. There are three survivors here including me.” She spoke. I nearly rolled my eyes at the name. That was painfully close to being Leila but at least it wasn’t actually Leila because if it had been that name I’d have been convinced I was in some sort of coma and dreaming all of this. As I had already known, Dawson was a very common last name it was why I’d chosen it for my character to begin with. I hadn’t wanted her to sound like some very special snowflake character with the most pretty fancy name on the planet. Just an average woman who also happened to be an heiress to a billion dollar technology industry. Something which this woman was obviously not.

“We are about five clicks from your location.” Hoffman responded.

“Clicks.” I muttered then snorted. Before anything else could happen, Billy walked in there completely naked and grabbed the radio receiver from Lara, putting it to his mouth.

“This is Billy Idol, we require drugs and all your women.”

“Give me that.” Dawson snapped, grabbing it away from him quickly, “And put some damn pants on.”

“What was that?” Hoffman replied.

“Uh sorry, sir…bad connection.”

“The bad connection sounded a lot like Billy Idol.” he replied.

“That’s because it is Billy Idol.” Dawson replied, sounding exasperated, “Look if you could just come and help us that would be great we need it.”

“Alright. ETA is about fifteen minutes, Dawson.” Hoffman said, “Get to the roof if you can manage.”

“Roof?” I asked.

“Roof?” Dawson repeated since there was no way Hoffman could have heard me.

“Yeah, we’re in a chopper. Should be enough room to land up there. From what I remember. Over and out.” That’s when radio communications went silent.

“How boring.” Billy said.

“Get some damn pants on! We have to move.” I told him going to grab the few things I felt I actually wanted to take with me. “Pack your stuff too, or don’t, I’m sure it can all be replaced.”

“Not all of it.” Billy said, and though he started to move he wasn’t moving much faster than he really had to, nor did he seem too pressed about getting clothes on. I sighed and while he was in the bedroom I jammed the drugs into the stolen bag again, putting them at the bottom and covering them with clothes. The gun went in there too, along with the rest of the ammunition that hadn’t been used. Mostly we had been using Dawson’s shotgun to fend things off so the 9mm I had found hadn’t really been fired more than the two rounds I’d used to attempt to take down the zombie security guard.

“What are you doing? He’s a police officer.” Dawson said, “You can’t bring drugs and a gun to-”

“A police officer, allegedly, who somehow got a helicopter?”

“Maybe it’s a hobby, also police have helicopters around here you know.” She pointed out.

“Alright, but are you absolutely positive we can trust this guy? Do you know him? Have you ever heard his name before five minutes ago? Maybe he’s on the up and up, but if he isn’t, shouldn’t we be prepared?” I asked. She looked at me for a long moment as if she were thinking, “Look, you do what you want, but my top priority is keeping him alive.” I motioned generally to the bedroom.

“No offense but why?”

“Because I…I love him.”

“YOU DO!?” Billy asked loudly from the bedroom.

“Thought that was obvious. YOU’RE MY BOYFRIEND!” I called back. Even though that had been a lie initially, trauma did have a way of bonding people and regardless of how he felt about me right now I knew how I felt about him. Nothing had changed from how I ever viewed him before we’d met. If anything, seeing him as an actual human being with flaws, severe fucking messed up flaws, had only made me love him more.

“Oh right yes, that whole thing, right…yes.” He stammered quickly.

“Guess there’s someone out there for everyone.” Dawson said under her breath, I don’t think I was supposed to be able to hear her but I had regardless. “Fine, just don’t be too paranoid. After all, we will be in a helicopter, none of us know how to fly one-”

“I probably could.” Billy said coming out of the bedroom with a bag over his shoulder, wearing the tightest black jeans I had ever fucking seen on him.

“No you couldn’t. I don’t care what the coke tells you.” I said.

“The point is, just play along with whatever until we land. Choppers can’t glide they just fall to the ground and explode we’d all die.” Dawson insisted.

“Alright, alright.” I said, “That goes for you too, Billy.”

“Whatever.” He stepped back into his room for just a moment longer and stepped back out with a guitar case in his other hand. I would have fought with him on trying to bring both a bag and a guitar but I supposed it was pointless in the moment. I turned to Dawson.

“I take it you know how to get to the roof?”

“Of course.” She said. “Not that hard from this floor and I still have my keys. Lets get moving. Oh, wait…” She hurried into the bedroom as I looked Billy over. I honestly hated to admit he was sexy like that because I was still trying to be upset with him but God Damn.

“Did you paint those on?”

“You wish, then you could still get at my cock, which I know you are just aching for right now.” He said thrusting his hips towards me lewdly. I felt my face go hot as I began to blush, looking away from him. I took in a deep breath of air and let it out slowly. He approached me and leaned into me, pressing against me tightly. “Well maybe I love you too. Maybe.” He growled before pulling away from me and heading for the door. I turned to look at him but before I could open my mouth to reply, Dawson was back with a white sheet in her hand that she’d pulled from the bed. That was a good idea, it would attract the chopper as it approached. Trying to push what he said to me to the back of my mind I came over to help her with the sheet and together we all headed for the roof. Hopefully this was guy was on the up and up and it was a real rescue but still, something wasn’t sitting right with me and I reminded myself to stay on guard. We were all going to get out of there alive. There was no way I’d come this far to lose Billy, or even Dawson. Even if I had only met her a few days ago, she’d saved our asses and I definitely owed her the same.


	14. Chapter 14

"Why did you make that comment...when you heard his name?" Dawson asked me as we started to lay out the white sheet so it could be seen from overhead. I had to pause so I could think about what she was referencing. Billy was pacing around the roof like a caged jungle cat that had too much energy. Then he jumped up on one of the vents and yelled loudly, pumping his fist in the air. I looked over at him and then heard a roar from the zombie hoards. It was very faint but it was definitely that and what he was obviously trying to get as a reaction.

"Billy! Get the fuck down from there!" I yelled.

"Why? This is awesome! Just like dancing with myself!"

"What?" Dawson asked.

"One of his songs, the video featured...zombies coming after him while he sang it on a roof. He's also on coke, remember?"

"How does he even remember if he's on coke?"

"Don't ask me." I said, "Just ignore him we have to get this sheet laid out." I snapped my fingers to draw her attention away from him. She shook her head and went to helping me lay it out as we used the bags we had brought up to anchor the corners.

"On the floor of Tokyo, or down in London town to go, go, with the record selection, and the mirror's reflection, I'm dancing with myself!" Billy spontaneously broke into song. He was dancing too, didn't even seem to give a shit that he was half screaming, half singing on the top of the roof, in the tightest pants ever, to actual zombies below him. In fact, this seemed like the most fun he'd ever possibly had. At least according to the past few months of performances I had seen him do.

"Is he really doing this?" Dawson asked.

"Yeah." I sighed then went to rest against another vent to watch him. As much as I was previously afraid he may fall, he seemed to have his footing down and his balance which was amazing given the fact that he was clearly high out of his mind.

"When there's no-one else in sight, in the crowded lonely night, well I wait so long, for my love vibration, and I'm dancing with myself!" He just kept on going. It was admirable in a weird sort of way. Or maybe it was just that I had gone entire days without music, TV, or anything else entertaining that I could use to take my mind off of the situation at hand.

"SING SOMETHING BETTER!" Dawson yelled at him. He turned to look at her then literally strutted across the vents and hoped down so he was standing right across from her, looking her dead in the eye.

"What would you prefer?"

"Something good." She said. He growled at her and I moved in quickly, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from him. I put my hand on his chest gently and rubbed it a bit.

"You're doing just fine." I smiled. This seemed to calm him for the moment, a very small moment, before he pulled me into a rough kiss, pulling my body close to his. He started to rub his hips up against me and as much as I wanted this to continue I knew that it wouldn't and shouldn't. I pulled back and tried to slap him away a bit. That didn't work out so well. He just kept me close and went for my neck. I kind of just let him, it was better than him falling off of the roof while trying to perform for zombies.

"At least he shut up." I heard Dawson mutter.

"Do you like good music? Do you like to dance? Oh yeah." He sang softly in my ear suddenly as the movement of his hips changed.

"Oh God, not now and not here." I breathed.

"Face to face...and back to back..." Luckily before he could continue the sound of the chopper drowned him out. Actually, he did completely continue I could feel the vibrations of his voice against my neck and skin I just couldn't hear him anymore. That was the lucky part because I was very close to giving up and trying to fuck him before help arrived. If this was actual help, I still wasn't sure and he was far too high to even attempt to comprehend that problem. He didn't even try to let go of me until the thing had landed. Then something, possibly an instinct that sensed another male, caused him to look up. He pulled me closer and turned me as if trying to protect me as some guy with a helmet on approached us after getting out of the chopper.

"Billy it's fine," I told him softly since the motors had died down, except I wasn't so sure of that. The guy was huge. Muscular, dressed in a cop's uniform, and as he removed his helmet I could see that his dark complexion, hair, and intense blue eyes were far too incredibly similar to the Mark Hoffman I admired in those damn Saw movies. The only problem with this was that it wasn't a movie, it was reality, and this set me on edge.

"You don't feel relaxed." He panted, yet I could now feel that his horny energy had turned to something more akin to terror and possibly paranoia.

"I'm just not sure about this like you weren't about Dawson."

"Well, I was wrong about her, she's a frigid bitch but she's not dangerous." He whispered. Dawson was now talking to him and everything seemed very polite and friendly, at least so far.

"That guy could snap my neck with one hand behind his back," I said.

"Then we stay here." He said.

"I don't think that's a good option," I said. "Don't worry, I'm still armed. If something happens we'll be okay." Dawson motioned to the two of us and the man, only currently known as Hoffman to me, looked in our direction and started to approach. Billy shoved me behind him and thrust his hand out confidently.

"Billy." He said.

"You really are Billy Idol," Hoffman replied sounding far more like fictional Mark Hoffman than he had over the crappy radio.

"Actually I'm his stunt double." Billy said, "So, you're police, yeah?"

"Lieutenant Mark Hoffman."

"Oh come on," I said loudly, causing everyone to stare at me for a moment. To be fair, that was also a very common name. Hoffman was possibly more common than Dawson and Mark was a name from the bible. It was ironic but it didn't mean anything. At least I hoped it didn't. "Uh...ever seen the Saw movies?"

"No." He said flatly.

"Right, then it won't matter." I laughed nervously and kind of went back to hiding behind Billy while I could take the opportunity to do so.

"Well that's pretty neat, kind of a fan," Mark said and then turned, motioning for us to follow him. Billy looked at me but pushed me back a bit, indicating that he wanted me to keep behind him. Normally, this would have annoyed me, but I didn't get the best feeling about this so if he wanted to lead I was more than happy with that. We got close enough to my bag that I was able to grab it and sling it over my shoulder. Mark hopped into the chopper and reached his hand out to help Dawson in. He reached out his arm again once she was in there.

"Don't need your help, chief," Billy said but Mark quickly shoved him back as he tried to get in before me. Obviously, this caused me to back up. Not liking this, Billy shoved forward, trying to get in again. Mark reached behind him swiftly, pulling a gun before I could even think of getting to mine.

"Said I was kind of a fan, not a huge admirer." Mark snarled, "I want her in back. Now." He pointed the gun at me. I looked at Billy and headed to get in the chopper, not wanting anyone to get hurt.

"Lisa, you don't have to listen to him," Billy said.

"He has a gun." I told him, "It'll be okay."

"Not if he leaves me here, alone." Billy insisted.

"Alone?" Mark laughed, "Got all those zombie friends don't you?" He pushed me into the back so I was sitting near Dawson. It was one of those helicopters, with the open sides in the back. Though it was obvious that Dawson had witnessed all of this, Mark was quick to turn the gun on her which caused her to freeze. Billy growled and moved to attack but the gun was right back in his face. I took a seat quickly. Dawson started to get up again but I grabbed her arm.

"You get him shot and I'll shoot you," I growled.

"He's going to get himself shot." She hissed softly.

"He's not that stupid." I snapped back at her.

"You know, since I'm kind of a fan, I guess it's not fair I just take your women and leave you without some sort of sporting chance, right?" Mark asked. From a side compartment, he grabbed a rolled up piece of paper pushing it into Billy's hand and shoving him back again as he started up the engine. Thanks to the drugs this was a momentary distraction, to get Billy to unroll what he had been given to look at it. The chopper started to lift.

"You can't do this, you can't fucking do this!" Billy roared at him.

"Fuck this I'm bailing..." Dawson said but Mark turned to aim the gun back at her. The chopper quickly elevated to a point where it would be far too dangerous for either of us to jump. Not too high for the bag though. Thinking quickly I pulled it off of my shoulder and tossed it out of the side. Billy's head turned and he saw it, then he turned back to look up at me, still holding whatever that paper was, unfurled in his hands. "Good going! You just gave him all our stuff!"

"He's going to need it more than we will."

"He's going to need a body bag to get out of here." Dawson snarled angrily then looked away refusing to look at me. I kept my eyes on him as long as I could as the chopper pulled away from the hotel roof, headed to God only knew where. I didn't know what was on the paper that he was given but whatever it was, I hoped to God it would give him enough information to come find us because if not, then I was going to have to admit that Dawson might just be right.

Not surprisingly, Dawson wasn't talking to me, as if this was my fault. I had already warned her to be on guard, she was the one who so easily got in the chopper. As if she couldn't wait to spend time away from both me and Billy. As much as I could understand how Billy's obnoxious behavior could be annoying to a lot of people (even if it wasn't to me) I had at least thought I'd developed some kind of simpatico with her. I had been wrong, or so it seemed. I tried not to concentrate on that, or the movement of the really bumpy ride and instead concentrate on my breathing. If I didn't do that I was not only going to panic but I was going to puke, which wouldn't be good for anyone.

It didn't take very long for us to begin to descend. Or at least it felt far too fast. I couldn't tell. Maybe it only felt that way because I was terrified of what was about to happen to us next and even more terrified of what would become of Billy. I had managed to fall in love with the man in only a few days, most of which was him being cranky and sick, and lose him. I couldn't fool myself too hard here. He was older, he was more frail, and I had just handed him a gun and a bunch of drugs. What the hell in me thought that there was a possibility that he was going to come and rescue us? Because he was kind of tough and sang punk rock back in the 70s and 80s? Yeah, keep dreaming.

It was unfair for me to have such little faith in him but the logical part of my brain was winning over this one. There was only so much I could pretend things were going to be okay before I stopped being able to pretend any longer. The chopper touched down and the engines stopped. Two other armed men approached the sides, negating any chance we may have had of running for it since we had landed. Dawson and I were pulled out and forced to stand together.

"She's not even that hot." One of the guards said as he motioned to me.

"She's better than some of the bitches we already found," Mark said.

"Yeah, maybe by your standards." The other guard said. All of that would have upset me if I wasn't painfully aware that by most standards I wasn't the prettiest girl in the entire universe. I was also older, and kind of looked it. Maybe. I wasn't sure. Being in my early thirties probably wasn't appealing to some faction of men who seemed intent on rescuing female survivors in order to turn them into sex slaves.

"Fine, I'll take her then," Mark said, grabbing my arm and pulling me forward. I yelped, but he pinned me with my back to him, covering my mouth with his hand. "Decide who gets her."

"LISA!" Dawson yelled out as I was pulled away quite easily and forced to moved inside with this asshole. The door shut just as I heard a very loud and what sounded like a pained scream. I froze up, causing Mark to have to drag me. I waited for a gunshot, but there never was one. I didn't know what was going to happen to her, well I could guess, but what she wanted me to do about it I hadn't the first clue.

"So, what are these Saw movies?" Mark asked. Still dragging my feet I decided to go limp in order to try to make this as difficult as possible for him. He wasn't an ugly guy but that didn't mean I wanted to be with him anymore. Especially not after how he'd gotten me there. "You realize this is going to happen, and it'll be a lot nicer if you cooperate." He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. We went to some office looking room at the end of the hall. His name was painted on the frosted glass panel of the door. It was most definitely a police station and he hadn't lied about being an officer. He was just a corrupt as hell officer and had taken the law and situation into his own hands. He threw me down onto a cot that was in there then quickly handcuffed my wrist to the bar at the top.

"I'm not going to ease your conscience about raping me by having some tedious conversation about my interests that you don't give a shit about," I growled. He walked over to the door and locked it, then went to the wall safe behind his desk, shifting just in the way so I couldn't see the code he entered. Once it was open, he pulled out a bottle of pills and then grabbed a small bottle of water from his mini-fridge. Then he came over to me and grabbed my hand.

"Take these then." He ordered.

"Why? What are they?"

"Just fucking take them, Lisa." He snarled. I doubted his intent was to kill or poison me, but I didn't know what the fuck these pills were. More than likely sedatives. I opened my palm to glance at them for a moment. Small, blue, Ativan. 5mgs of Ativan. I took them quickly with a few gulps of water and then laid down. "Good girl."

He stepped away from the bed and opened another drawer in his desk, removing a pack of cigarettes. He tapped them on his wrist for a long moment before removing one and putting it in his mouth to light. After that, he slowly started to remove the gear he was wearing. I watched him, staying silent. He seemed to be taking his time with this like he wanted the pills to kick in before starting. It made sense, honestly. I didn't know why he was doing this if he needed me to be knocked out for it. Though it was possible it was something he got off on. A drugged up girl who was helpless to stop him. Mostly conscious so she'd respond but unaware and not able to struggle. It had been so long since I'd had Ativan, 5mgs would definitely do that to me. It wouldn't render me completely unconscious for the experience but it would keep me calm and somewhat unaware of what was going on. It helped that I was so damn skinny, made me a lightweight.

"Is it the whole world?" I asked him.

"Just the city. Amazingly. Only, they won't let us out. We're quarantined." He replied. I was surprised he even gave me an answer. I could definitely believe it was the truth though, it would be why he was trying to survive here. Except if he was telling the truth, or the government was just about being quarantined it would mean that eventually, real help would come.

"And when the military shows up?"

"You aren't going to say shit about this," He said. "Got thirty long days with me, sweetheart and I got access to all the drugs. You'll barely have a working brain when I'm done with you."

"You're the chief here, that's apparent. You could have anyone you found, including Dawson. I'm not blind to the fact she's much hotter than me, so why-"

"Because you were his." He chuckled darkly, "Possibly even loved him, and there's nothing more enjoyable than breaking a bitch's spirit. He's never going to make it here you know. Gave him a map and everything to tempt him, see he'll try, but he's old. He'll die."

"Sick bastard." I whispered, "Always knew what they said about law enforcement being psychopaths had to be true."

"Yeah, welcome to your new world, honey." He grinned, "Besides, I honestly don't think you're that ugly. Not a ten on the scale of hotness, probably about a 7...but the whole heart breaking losing your entire world factor ups it a notch."

"When they come, they'll find out some one will..."

"Really? You think they're coming in here before they napalm the place? The thirty-day warning was for congressional approval to bomb the city, not to rescue us. Wake up, this is the government dealing with zombies, not a fucking movie. You're done for. You and your little Billy...Idol." He growled.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. I wanted to scream, I wanted to yell, I wanted to tell him that he was positively wrong about this and that Billy would be here and he would save me but I didn't even believe that. Not anymore. The drugs started to kick in, making me a bit hazy. If I gave him the satisfaction of showing any sort of extreme emotion then he'd win. If he wanted a reaction because that's what he liked, I'd deny him just that. At least as long as I possibly could. The drugs would certainly help, and he seemed to have a lot of them.


	15. Chapter 15

It wasn't exactly terrible, the next few days, or however much time had passed. I mean, in a way it had been because I was on drugs. A lot of them. I found if I willingly took pills I was handed I could avoid being given injections, that or be forced into doing harder things. Hoffman pretty much just wanted me docile and complacent. Enough to be aware of what was going on but not really be able to fight back. Something that was usually referred to as "chemical restraint" if you were shoved in a psych-ward. Except, these weren't medications prescribed by a psychiatrist. It was just the best way I could think to describe it in my own head. I really shouldn't have known about the inner workings of psych-wards the way I did but other than spending time in one when I was much younger after a suicide attempt, I had a bit of a higher education in psychology.

I understood that even though in the moments that were waking, I was aware of what was going on but too tired and drained to stop it, once I was removed from the situation and off of the medications I would lose great blankets of time and space in my memory banks. It was the only reason I so easily complied. The amnesiac effect of the pills would end up being a blessing once I got out of there. Which I was still convinced would happen, I just wasn't sure how or when. At a certain point, I realized I wasn't even sure how much time had passed. I was kept mostly in Hoffman's office. He'd bring me food, of which there seemed to be a lot. It was mostly canned stuff but it was better than what we had been surviving on back in the hotel. I was never hungry, or thirsty. I basically had no privacy but I was so jacked out of my mind with barbiturates and opioids I also didn't really care.

Some morning, after I woke, I found that I wasn't handcuffed to the bed. Usually, in the morning, I was. Then I had to ask to be unlocked so I could use the bathroom and shower. Hoffman wasn't in there with me either. I stood up and walked over to the desk to look things over. The drawers and safe were locked, which I already knew, so I didn't bother trying to waste any sort of energy with snooping. I found that on his desk he had been tallying the days. My heart sank when I realized it had been not just a few days, but nearly two weeks. If that was the case then there was no way Billy was going to get here. He was dead like Mark had intended. There was no reason to think otherwise. I had the feeling that I would have been far more upset had I also not woken up completely stoned but I did know that I felt the dull ache of loss through my chest and back. The hollow feeling of knowing that a loved one would never be seen again.

I didn't much miss my friends back home, I only had a few, but if this whole zombie thing was contained then they would live. They deserved to live more than I did, that was for sure. It was why I wasn't trying too hard to fight this. Or to leave. I was rather non-reactive to Hoffman as well and didn't understand why he still took any sort of entertainment in doing what he was doing to me. I had no intent to escape, which I had told him repeatedly. Where would I go? What would I do? Despite the fact he was providing me drugs, and raping me, it still was the better option to stay here and hope that a real rescue ended up happening than to try to run and risk being attacked and zombified by the undead that walked the rest of the desert.

Maybe he finally believed that I wasn't going to try to escape because there wasn't one moment I had tried. Not even now did it occur to me to do that. Not because I was stupid but because I didn't think there was a point if it wasn't to go back to Billy. Like I had said to him, if I knew my world was going to end in the morning I'd spend the night before doing drugs. This was basically that, except there were about 17 days to go before the desert and all of its contents were nuked to holy hell. I walked over to the door and opened it, surprised to find not even that was locked. I headed down the hall to the small dining room where he took me to eat on occasion. Not much though. I had only met a few others girls there but I hadn't had a chance to talk to them, and I had no idea where Dawson was. Hadn't seen her since that day on the roof.

There was no one in the dining hall either. This was weird. That's when I heard loud cheering from the side of the building. Definitely outside. I walked to the window to look out. In the yard back there, the officers had all gathered in a ring. There were two men in the middle and they looked like they were about to face off in a fight. I walked to the door in there that would lead out to a back staircase. It led to a smoking area and then ultimately into the yard. None of the other girls were out there. It was just what remained of the police precinct and that wasn't much. Maybe about thirty men, of all ethnicities, ages, and backgrounds.

I got onto a bench and looked above the crowd, keeping my distance so I could watch. In the center of the group, I could see Hoffman and some other, smaller looking man about to throw down with each other. There were chants for Hoffman to kill the other guy who's name seemed to be Jones. A whistle blew and Hoffman lunged at Jones. There was no chance in hell that this guy was going to win this fight. That became even more apparent when I saw that in his hand, Hoffman had hidden a small blade which very quickly went into Jones' neck. He pulled back his arm and a spray of blood followed. Jones collapsed. The blade slipped back into the sleeve of his uniform. Fucking cheater! I wanted to scream it but I knew better than that. The men all cheered and came in to pat Hoffman on the back. That's when he noticed me.

"Lisa!" He called, shoving through the crowd. He came over and grabbed me, "Why the hell are you out here?" I glanced over at the fences that enclosed the area. There was a hoard of zombies on the other side shaking them, kind of, but otherwise, everything seemed sturdy. It was why no one seemed too concerned that any of them were going to get in anytime soon. It was a ten-foot tall fence with barbed wire at the top.

"Wondered where everyone was." I said, "You killed that guy."

"He knew the rules before getting into it."

"Which was what? You were allowed to use a hidden blade to slit his throat?" I asked. Hoffman grabbed me and picked me up easily, starting to carry me up the back staircase and back inside of the building where I had come.

"Lisa, sometimes the alpha of the pack needs to do what he needs to do in order to stay alpha."

"So the rules are that the alpha is allowed to cheat?"

"The rules are that in Vegas, the house always wins." He said and kicked the door open at the top of the stairs heavily. I looked behind him, over his shoulder, the men were starting to follow, except for a few who stayed behind to carry the body off. Probably to give to the zombies.

"The house mostly wins. What happens if the house doesn't win at some point because the house gets old or injured?"

"Then to the victor go the spoils." He laughed as if this was never anything that could possibly happen. In the next two weeks before we were bombed I was sure it couldn't. Basically, what he was explaining to me was anyone could challenge him in what seemed to be a fight to the death situation. If they won, they became alpha, if they lost they died. I supposed it may have felt more honorable for some men to go out fighting instead of sitting around waiting to be bombed. Hoffman seemed to have a hell of a lot of support from the others, though. As much as he was a sociopath I didn't seem him do much of anything I would consider to be extremely unfair. No one really had complaints or fought and he worked hard to divide up what supplies they did have so everyone got fed. I knew this because he'd sit up at night going over the inventory muttering to himself, along with names, as he tried to add up what could go where and how to survive for another day. As such, it made little sense to me why anyone would want to try to challenge him but I also didn't hear their sides of the story. I only ever heard his, or the few officers that came in on occasion to report things or ask questions.

"You'd be okay with dying then?"

"Yes, except I'm not going to die." He laughed, "But anyone who feels up to it can challenge me to a fight."

"You don't fight fair," I said.

"I fight to win." He growled and placed me back on the bed. He didn't go for the handcuff to chain me up again, though. "You didn't try to escape. No one was in here. You could have just walked out through the front door."

"What would be the point?" I asked, curling up on the bed and yawning. Walking that far and doing that much (even if it had been very little) was enough to drain me of any sort of energy.

"You've learned your place then?"

"I've learned what's good for me." I said, "Not because of anything you did but because I know that how I am now could not even run from zombies let alone fight them. I also am intent on surviving as long as possible."

"So you still think there is hope, for escape?"

"I think there is hope for a rescue."

"Yeah, keep hoping." He snorted and grabbed a pack of cigarettes from his desk. He took one out and lit one, before leaning against it. "You know he's probably dead, right?"

"I know that you killed him by leaving him out there like that," I replied.

"I gave him a sporting chance, same as the others."

"You didn't give him any chance." I snapped, "You knew he couldn't survive and...what others?"

"Other men, or less desirable women." He shrugged. "You just barely made the cut, and really only because I was dead set on banging the slut that a rock star once owned. Was he good? Make you cum nice and hard?"

"His fingers were bigger than your dick," I muttered.

"WHAT!?" He roared coming right at me. Except before he could do anything to hurt me there was a huge BOOM outside. Like an explosion. It had to be an explosion. He paused and his walkie-talkie crackled to life.

"Chief, we got a situation out here."

"I'm going to make you pay for that as soon as I get back you little cunt." He growled, grabbing the walkie-talkie to respond as he walked out of there, shutting the door and locking it behind him. My heart was pounding a mile a minute, for only about a minute, before the sedatives I was on kicked in and I calmed. At that point, I didn't care what the sound was or who was doing it. I would probably be better off dead than facing whatever he intended to do to me once he got back.

I don't know how long I was out. It must have been a while because when I did wake up, I was far more alert than I was used to being. That, and my head hurt, my mouth was dry, and I was kind of nauseous. Withdrawal. Fuck. I got up and looked around. It was dark, but that didn't mean much. There weren't any windows in here. Probably a strategic move so no one could take the chief out with a sniper rifle. Or track his movements. Whatever. I went to the door, but it was locked this time. Goddammit. I looked around and then headed into the small private bathroom. There was no shower in there, just a toilet, mirror, and sink, but I had to pee.

After I finished that, I went to the sink and splashed some cold water on it. I then stepped into the office again and grabbed a bottle of water to take a drink. Maybe I was just dehydrated. I was sure that had to at least be part of why I felt like shit. The radio still wasn't in the office, which meant Hoffman was out doing whatever. I heard another random BOOM and it made me jump. If I only had a window to look out of, I may have felt just a bit more safe. Whatever was making those explosions, it had to be far. Certainly they were loud but they weren't in a way that it was close, nor did they make my ears ring. I couldn't even feel vibrations from them.

It was only a few seconds later that the door opened and Hoffman came in there and looked at me, almost as if he were accusing me of something.

"Something out there is tossing grenades into the zombie hoards for some reason, which is only drawing more of them here." He growled.

"How is this my problem?" I snapped.

"Who the fuck else do you think could be out there? Your boyfriend maybe?"

"Yeah right." I snorted, "You said there were others that you gave a so called fighting chance to. Maybe someone finally formed a plan and started to attack this place. Even so, none of this sounds like an attack. It sounds like throwing grenades at zombies for some stupid reason."

"It's strategic." He insisted. "It's not random. I don't know why it's being done but it's not random it's timed."

"Okay, you're the police officer so..."

"Cut the bullshit Lisa!" He yelled, "It's your fucking boyfriend."

"Please, for the love of holy fuck, explain to me how the hell you know this!" I yelled right back at him. He grabbed my arm and yanked me up out of the bed. There was no answer but I really didn't have a choice other than to go with him in the moment. If I dragged my feet he was just going to carry me, so what was even the point in that? I was led up to the roof very quickly and pushed into the helicopter. "I really don't see how this proves anything."

"Shut your whore mouth." He snapped.

"You're the one who dressed me like a whore." I shot back. All of this was far too irritating without the sedatives he had already hooked me on and honestly, I would have been willing to do anything in that moment for just a few more pills. He seemed to panicked to even consider the idea. From his belt he pulled his radio and called for some guy named Matthews. I looked down at that skimpy black lycra dress he'd gotten me into for the day, or past two days, I couldn't remember. I did know that periodically the dresses changed but they were always things that a stripper would wear. I knew because of the years I was a stripper. It wasn't uncomfortable but it was very thin material and could get chilly at night.

Matthews came out onto the roof about a minute later and got in the chopper. Hoffman got in next and started it up. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, trying not to puke up the water that I had just drank. We lifted and started to move. They were talking back and forth but the engines were too loud for me to hear what they were saying. Not that I even gave a shit. It wasn't until I was grabbed and being rudely manipulated into some sort of harness did my eyes open.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" I yelled.

"Shut your mouth!" Matthews snapped at me, backhanding me across the face. "He's here for you and we are going to catch him."

"Oh for the love of GOD you think a 60-year-old man who was left with limited ammo and a brick of coke some how got here? Really? For me? And he also...has grenades I guess."

"Cocaine is one hell of a drug," Matthews said then spat in my face. I recoiled in disgust and he locked the harness into place. After that, my wrists were tied behind my back and something was hooked onto the back of the harness. A second later I was thrown out of the helicopter with absolutely no warning. I screamed loudly and started to kick, the rope I was attached to dangling me in the air, right over the zombies and the spotlights that illuminated the front of the police building lit me up enough that I was starting to get blinded even in the dead of night.

"THIS IS FUCKING STUPID! LET ME UP!" I screamed, not that I believed they could even hear me. I knew I was too high for the zombies to get me, but it was night. How was anyone supposed to see what the fuck they were doing or dangling above the building anyway? Eventually, my energy ran out and I just let myself hang there while literally, nothing happened. It was a good ten minutes before the helicopter gave me a good jerk and I lifted my head again. One of the spotlights turned to shine down on the parking lot. I blinked as my vision started to clear a bit and I could actually see.

There was an explosion on either side of the gates that outlined the parking lot. The chopper moved me more to the inside of the perimeter so that I was dangling over an empty area instead of a horde of zombies. They were definitely using me as some sort of lure, but for who and why I had no idea. The last thing on my mind was that anyone would give a shit about me, specifically. Though, if there was a lone vigilante male roaming out there, it was possible he'd be tempted into saving an innocent woman in stripper gear being dangled above the parking lot. Perhaps I'd look like whoever they had taken from him.

As the smoke and dust cleared from the two explosions, I saw someone on a motorcycle drive through the gates which had just been blown wide open by the grenades at what seemed like 100 miles per hour. It was only due to the light they had decided to turn to shine down into the lot that I knew it had happened. Otherwise, the roar of the engines above wouldn't have allowed me to hear it. A man, completely in black leather biker armor came to a stop right by the front doors. From his vest he pulled something and threw them back at the hoard of zombies approaching, then he turned and threw one at the door to the police station.

The chopper started to get lower to the ground, about 20 feet above the pavement or so. My mind was still reeling trying to comprehend this. Whoever this man was, he had a black helmet on and was covered from head to toe in leather everything. His head turned to look up at me, his hand raising in the air, making some kind of motion. Then the rope snapped, out of nowhere, I screamed as I fell to the pavement, some how landing on my feet immediately before collapsing as I was sure my leg broke. At least I hadn't fallen on my back, face, or head. The man ran over to me and picked me up.

"WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK! WERE YOU TRYING TO GET ME KILLED? MY FUCKING LEG IS BROKEN YOU GODDAMN MANIAC! DO YOU EVEN HAVE A PLAN TO GET OUT OF HERE!?" I screamed angrily twisting and struggling, not wanting to end up in yet another sex slave situation where my leg was broken. He headed towards the police station instead of back to the motorcycle, which was even more stupid especially since the doors were now blasted open and there was no way the zombies weren't going to get in there. He rounded the corner with me still in his arms, at that point I was just screaming and cursing mindlessly at him because of the pain. From around the corner came about ten armed officers with weapons pushing past us quickly. A few stood outside to shoot at the zombies while the rest moved any available object left over to get them to the hole in the wall and make a barricade.

Right as we made it to the stairs, Hoffman and his men were headed down them. A bunch of large guns were aimed right at us immediately.

"LOOK! I DON'T KNOW HIM AND I DIDN'T ASK HIM TO DO THIS! I WAS WITH YOU THE WHOLE TIME! THIS IS NOT MY FAULT!" I screamed.

"Put her down."

"How's she to stand with a broken leg?" I froze, my eyes going wide as if I had just seen a ghost, or heard one at least. The man shifted and raised just the visor of the motorcycle helmet then quickly regained his grasp on me so I wouldn't fall and looked in my direction.

"Billy..." I whispered. Though I couldn't see his mouth from how the helmet had it covered I could tell by his eyes he was smiling.

"You come here, you fucking destroy my police station then you are foolish enough to walk right back in, with her," Hoffman said.

"Couldn't very well leave, could I? Not through that stampede. Think I drew every zombie in the county here with those grenades the past 12 or so hours, yeah? You'd know wouldn't you?" He asked turning back to look at Hoffman.

"Why do ANY of this?" He growled.

"Why take my women and leave me to die?" He replied, "Maybe it was all for shits and giggles."

"Challenge him," I whispered.

"What?" He whispered back and glanced at me then back to Hoffman. "And yes I...I challenge you then I suppose."

He didn't speak with much confidence, probably because he had no idea why I had said that or what the fuck he was entering into by saying that. The men around Hoffman, however, lowered their weapons and looked at him. As I had suspected, this stupid game that he'd set up over the past few weeks had trapped him. If he ordered Billy shot now, he'd look like a coward. He'd have to fight him. I wasn't sure how in the holy hell Billy was going to actually win but maybe, just maybe if he'd done all this he had a chance.

"Fifteen minutes." Hoffman said, "Watch him, at all times while I prepare."

"The girl stays with me."

"Fine, but she doesn't tell you a word or Matthews here is going to execute her." Hoffman snapped. Fuck. Now I couldn't say anything about the knife he was going to have. Or could I? There had to be a way to do it without being overly obvious or using my words. I could figure this out. He wasn't an idiot and according to his eyes he was clearly high. Something could be done, it had to be done, or I was going to watch him get slaughtered right in front of me.

"Come on, punk boy." Matthews ordered motioning up the stairs. Billy started to walk with me still in his arms. I didn't know how I was going to warn him, or what I would do, but I had fifteen minutes to figure it the fuck out and I was going to use them properly.


End file.
